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EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 



CHILDHOOD AND 
YOUTH SERIES 



A Collection of Books for Parents and Teachers by 
Recognized Authorities on the Development and 
Training of Children under the General Editorship 
of M, Vo G'Shea^ of the University of Wisconsin 



Self-Reliance . 
Being Well-Born 
Natural Education . 
Honesty 

Backward Children . 
The Wayward Child 
The Use of Money . 
The High-School Age 



Dorothy Canfield Fisher 

Michael F. Guyer 

Winifred Sackville Stoner 

William Healy 

Arthur Holmes 

Mrs. Frederic Schoff 

. E. A. Kirkpatrick 

. Irving King 

Edgar James Swift 



Learning by Doing . 

The Child and His Spelling 

William A. Cook and M. V. O'Shea 

Types of Schools for Boys 

Alfred E. Stearns, L. R. Gignilliat, Milo H. Stuart, 
Eric Parson and J. J. Findlay 



Price^ Eachy $1.2^ net. 



EDUCATION FOR 
CHARACTER 



Moral Training in the School 
and Home 



By 
FRANK CHAPMAN SHARP, Ph. D. 

Professor of Philosophy, The University 
of Wisconsin 



£QJ 



INDIANAPOLIS 

THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 



Copyright 1917 
The Bobbs-Merrill Company 



A O H 6 




PRESS OF 

BRAUNWORTH & CO. 

BOOK MANUFACTURERS 

BROOKLYN, N. Y. 



JUL -9 mi 

©C1.A470196 



PREFACE 

The subject-matter of the following study is one 
department of the great problem how to develop in 
children and young people their latent capacities for 
good. Of the many agencies that may contribute 
to this end we shall confine our attention entirely 
to one, moral education. In the main our subject 
is moral education in the school. And we shall have 
before our mind's eye primarily one type of educa- 
tional institution, the American public school. 

Limitations of space compel a still narrower defi- 
nition of our subject. The moral life is a very com- 
plex affair, and its existence and welfare are inex- 
tricably intertwined with all the other elements of 
life. The physical life is no exception. The school 
physician and the school nurse accordingly are, 
among other things, moral reformers, and in some 
instances the rest of us can accomplish little or noth- 
ing until they have done their work. 

Furthermore, the moral life has many allies, as 
it has many enemies. Take, as an illustration of 
the former, pride in physical perfection. "It may 
be fairly claimed for reformatory and industrial 
schools," writes Mr. Legge, Director of the Schools 
of Liverpool, "that they have proved two things: 



PREFACE 



first, that the earliest glimmer of reformation in 
the inmate of a reformatory school is detected When 
he is found to have developed a feeling of self-re- 
spect; secondly, that this feeling of self-respect is 
easiest aroused by inducing a boy to take a pride in 
his physical development." This principle is being 
used in the Philadelphia public schools for all their 
boys, in what seems to me an admirable and yet very 
simple fashion; and it is being used not merely to 
awaken latent self-respect but also to help arm the 
pupils against the temptations of vice and idleness. 

An account of even the more important of these 
various auxiliary agencies would require an encyclo- 
pedia. Interesting and important as they are, they 
are omitted in this study because the only protection 
against scattering lies in confining ourselves to the 
center of the problem, how directly to develop and 
strengthen loyalty to moral ideals as such. 

The teacher and the parent are dealing with a con- 
stantly changing organism. For this reason the 
writer of a book on moral education might perhaps 
be expected to present an account of the principles 
of moral development. Here again I have had to 
face the problem of the boy in the fable who put 
his hand in the jar of nuts and seized so many that 
he could not pull his hand out. It has seemed to me 
that the most pressing need at the present time lay 



PREFACE 

in the discussion of another set of problems. I have 
accordingly confined myself to a survey of the con- 
crete aims of moral education and the agencies and 
instruments by which they may be attained. 

The chief means at the disposal of the school for 
the development of character are the influence of 
personality on personality, exercised in the ordinary 
routine of its e very-day life, moral training through 
work and play, and moral instruction, or the influ- 
encing of character through ideas. These distinc- 
tions are far from being absolute, but they are con- 
venient for practise. To each of these subjects is 
devoted a section of the book. The application to 
the home of the principles worked out at length for 
the school forms the last division of our study. The 
most general statement of the principles upon which 
all forms of moral education must rest, wherever 
they may be conducted, will be found in Chap- 
ter XII. 

Of the methods described,, all have been actually 
tried in the fires of experience. For the more elab- 
orate methods of moral training I have been com- 
pelled to rely upon a study of the work of other 
teachers. But the discussion of moral instruction 
rests upon a year's experience of my own in the 
city high school of Madison, and four years of work 
in the high school of the University of Wisconsin. 



PREFACE 

This book has grown out of lectures on moral 
education delivered in the University of Wisconsin 
from 1899 to 1902, and from 1911 to the present 
time. My students in these courses, particularly the 
members of my summer session classes, have given 
me valuable suggestions along many lines. For this 
help I wish to express my sincere appreciation. 

F. C. S. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I The Place of Moral Education in the School 1 

The school as an instrument o£ moral educa- 
tion — Limitations of the moral influence of the 
church — Limitations of the moral influence of 
the home — The school not a makeshift for 
church and home — Moral education as a 
source of class-room efficiency — What some 
great educators have accomplished. 

PART I 
The Influence of Personality 

JI The Personality of the Teacher .... 9 

The importance of the personality of the 
teacher — The limitations of its effectiveness — 
(1) The good tends to pass unnoticed — (2) 
The schoolroom offers a limited field for the 
display of character — (3) Men teachers do 
not represent their pupils* ideal of success — 
(4) Women's influence upon boys has definite 
boundaries — (5) Admiration does not neces- 
sarily produce principles — The necessity of 
creating special channels of influence — ^The 
qualifications of a good teacher — How the de- 
mand may be supplied — Moral education will 
give the teacher a new status in the commu- 
nity. 

Ill The Teacher as a Friend 24 

The conditions of effective personal relation- 
ships — How friendship arises between teach- 



COt^TE'NTS— Continued 

CHAPTER PAGB 

ers and pupils — The limitations of this method 
of moral education. 

IV The Tone of the School 33 

Capturing the leaders — Excluding the bad 
from leadership — Segregation or expulsion of 
the hopelessly bad. 

PART II 
Moral Training 

V The Discipline of the School i . . . . 40 

Moral training defined — The distinction be- 
tween conformity and loyalty to the moral 
ideal — External discipline can not create char- 
acter — The insufficiency of the school virtues 
— The insufficiency of habits of outer con- 
formity — These facts do not prove that dis- 
cipline is morally valueless — The place of 
punishment in the development of character 
— The moral value of drudgery — The place of 
drudgery and of enthusiasm in school work — 
The habit of hard work. 

VI Pupil Government . . . • 56 

The meaning of pupil government — Condi- 
tions of success — The results of the system — 
Its dangers — Pupil government vs. self-gov- 
ernment — The honor system — Dealing with 
serious offenses under the system of self- 
government. 

yil Mutual Aid in Class Work 74 

Moral training in the old-fashioned home — 
Methods of developing the desire for active 
service — Mutual aid in class work : the under- 



CONTENTS— Continued 

CHAPTER PAGE 

lying principle — Its employment in handwork 
— Its employment in the traditional studies — 
Its value as intellectual discipHne — Its effects 
upon character — The conditions upon which 
these effects depend — Unsupervised mutual 
aid: the danger of pauperizing — The funda- 
mental limitation of the entire method. 

VIII The Service of the School 89 

The opportunities offered by handwork — 
Service through the work of the traditional 
curriculum — Care for the moral welfare of 
fellow pupils — The Francis W. Parker 
School : handwork — The museum — Written 
class work — Dramatic and musical work — 
"Investigation Lane" — The morning exercises 
■ — The value of these methods. 

IX Moral Training through the Extra-Cur- 

RicuLAR Activities of the School . . . . 106 

The old-fashioned methods of social training 
— These methods may be employed in im- 
proved form by the school — The initial idea 
came from Arnold of Rugby — Application to 
American conditions in the University of Chi- 
cago High School — Athletics — Other activi- 
ties — The class as a social unit — Student pub- 
lications — The Students' Council — The honor 
societies — The Assembly — School parties — 
The solution of the fraternity problem — The 
conditions of success. 

X Direct Training in Citizenship 124 

Work for the poor — Schoolboys as policemen 
and municipal workers — The work of the 
Two Rivers (Wisconsin) High School — The 



CONTENTS— CoH^ww^(f 

CHAPTER PAGE 

first step — The establishment of public bath- 
houses — The creation of a city park — Other 
forms of civic improvement — The construct- 
ive character of this work — The high-school 
organizations responsible for the work — The 
results, material and moral. 

XI The Nature and Conditions of Effective 

Moral Training 139 

Moral loyalty not the product of fear or ap- 
probativeness — Methods of moral training: 
(1) Leading the horse to water — (2) Devel- 
oping interest through contact — (3) Curing 
thoughtlessness — (4) Destroying enemies and 
strengthening alHes — Importance of distin- 
guishing between these methods — Many ef- 
fects attributed to training really due to con- 
tact with character — The relative effectiveness 
of the different agencies for moral training — 
The necessity of moral instruction. 

PART III 

Moral Instruction 

XII Aims of Moral Instruction ...... 155 

The principal aims of moral training and in- 
struction — The need for more Knowledge of 
what is right — How to strengthen the desire 
to do right — Training and instruction In ac- 
quiring self-control — The second of these 
ends Is the most important — The nature of 
the moral life — The desire to serve can be 
strengthened through (1) the discovery of the 
effects of our conduct — (2) The development 
of the power to realize these effects — (3) The 



CONTEl^TS— Continued 

CHAPTER PAGE 

'development of a spirit of hopefulness — (4) 
Increased respect or admiration for our fel- 
low men — (5) The recognition of the claims of 
gratitude — The existence in every normal hu- 
man being of the desire to serve — Awakening 
the desire for excellence of character — The 
portrayal of evil in moral instruction — The 
claims of egoism — The possibility of a conflict 
between egoism and altruism — Summary—! 
The discovery of identities and differences — • 
Morality not something alien from human 
nature — Moral ideals subject to growth — The 
function of moral instruction. 

XIII Training in Moral Thoughtfulness . . . 193 

Instruction in the sense of pouring in infor- 
mation relatively worthless — Application to 
morals — The limitations of authority in mor- 
als — The limitations of abstract knowledge — 
The work of moral instruction should consist 
in training in moral thoughtfulness — The na- 
ture and value of moral thoughtfulness — ^The 
field of moral instruction. 

XIV Moral Instruction through the Existing 
Curriculum 201 

Training in moral thoughtfulness through 
history — (1) The direct influence of character 
upon character — (2) Training in tracing the 
effects of conduct — (3) Developing the power 
to realize the absent — (4) The cultivation of 
national patriotism — (5) The cultivation of 
racial patriotism — The influence of history 
upon character depends on good teaching — 
The selection of material for class work— 



CONTENTS— Continued 

CHAPTER PAGE 

Literature as a picture of the real world — Lit- 
erature compared with history as a means of 
training in moral thoughtfulness — Some ad- 
vantages of literature over history: (1) It 
may exhibit the laws of life with greater 
clearness — (2) It can reveal the potentialities 
of human nature — (3) It deals with the con- 
crete — The qualifications of a good teacher of 
literature — The place of history and literature 
in a system of moral instruction — Civics: its 
principal aims — Its results — The literature of 
civic instruction. 

XV Moral Iststruction through Biography . . 236 
Some advantages of history over literature as 
a means of moral instruction — Biography 
combines most of the advantages of history 
and Hterature — Some specific aims of the 
study of biography — The statement of pur- 
poses to be made to the class — Methods of 
conducting the course — The immediate aim — 
The place of the course in the curriculum — A 
course in American biography — A course in 
contemporary social progress — Results to be 
expected from this course — The relation of 
these courses to other forms of moral educa- 
tion. 

XVI The Systematic Study of the Conduct of 

Life: Its Aims 257 

The insufficiency of the incidental method of 
moral instruction — The fundamental aims of 
a systematic course in the conduct of life — 
The knowledge of what is right: (a) Analysis 
of the situation — (b) The determination of 
the standard to be applied to the situation — 



CONTENTS— Continued 

CHAPTER PAGE 

The appeal to authority in determining the 
standard — Summary — The knowledge re- 
quired for the attainment of self-control — 
Application to the elementary school — Impos- 
sibility of separating the three aims — The de- 
velopment of the desire to do right is the 
most important of these aims — Moral instruc- 
tion and ethics — The French system of moral 
instruction and that here described, con- 
trasted. 

XVII A Program for the Systematic Study of the 

Conduct of Life 279 

The classification of duties — A course for the 
elementary school — The problem of sexual 
instruction in the elementary school — The 
high-school course in moral Instruction — The 
system of classification used in the following 
outline — (I) The service of self — (II) The 
home — (III) Our friends (chums) — (IV) 
School life — (V) The remaining duties of 
special relationships — (VI) Duties to all men 
as such — Illustrations from veracity — (VII) 
Vocational ethics — (VIII) The nature of a 
successful life — An illustration from friend- 
ship. 

XVIII The Systematic Study of the Conduct of 

Life: Methods and Results 318 

Methods in the high school — Methods in the 
elementary school — Place in the curriculum — 
How to find room in the overcrowded cur- 
riculum — The problem of legal requirement — 
The pupils* interest in the work — Its effects 
— Moral instruction and moral training. 



CONTENTS— Cow^mM^ci 

PART IV 

The Home 
chapter page 

XIX Moral Education in the Home 342 

The fundamental aims and methods of moral 
education the same in the home and the 
school — The value of general principles as a 
guide to practise — Example — Companionship 
— Discipline — Punishment — Moral instruction 
— Danger of our children's home being infe- 
rior to our childhood home. 

A Program of Moral Instruction for the Ele- 
mentary School . . 361 

Exercises 401 

Bibliography 427 

Index , . . . . 445 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 



Education For Character 

CHAPTER I 

THE PLACE OF MORAL EDUCATION IN THE SCHOOL 

The value to the community of a system of train- 
ing in marksmanship will depend not merely upon 
the amount of skill which it succeeds in developing, 
but also upon the direction in which the rifle will be 
aimed after the skill has been acquired. Precisely 
the same thing is true of an educational system. We 
teachers are attempting to impart knowledge and to 
sharpen wits. But the value of our work depends 
upon the ends for which these acquisitions are em- 
ployed. In an address delivered shortly before his 
death Professor James said : "In my time there has 
been in Eastern Massachusetts no enterprise of pub- 
lic or private rascality that has not been organized 
or led by a Harvard man." Professor James was 
speaking as a Harvard graduate. But if for "East- 
ern Massachusetts" you read cities of the United 
States, and for "Harvard man," college man^ you 
obtain a statement which, as a college graduate, I 

1 



2 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

am prepared to admit is near enough the truth to be 
an extremely disquieting fact. When one considers 
that the community, either through taxes or dona- 
tions, is all the while paying the expenses for thus 
drilling its enemies, the transaction seems, in one 
aspect, almost grotesque. The conclusion to be 
drawn from the facts would seem to be that the 
training of the intellect should be balanced by the 
training of the will, so that the result will be a well- 
rounded personality, and not a perversion, repellent 
in itself and a menace to the community. 

The School as an Instrument of Moral Edu- 
cation. — A great many agencies must contribute 
if the moral situation which we face to-day is ever 
to be radically and permanently improved. Of 
these, none has greater potentiality for good — all 
things considered — and none is more amenable to 
public sentiment than our public schools. Moral 
education, in fact, lies in the way of the school as 
certainly as it does in the way of the home and the 
church. For the end of education can not be stated 
in any less inclusive terms than as training for com- 
plete living. This is one justification for the intro- 
duction of physical education into the schools. It 
applies equally to the training of character. The 
moral end was indeed regarded as the fundamental 
one by Horace Mann when he toiled to create our 
present public-school system. And this view was 
shared by the great majority of the teachers, and 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 3 

served to guide the actual conduct of their work — 
according to their lights — until about a generation 
ago. The one-sided insistence upon intellectual re- 
sults is — broadly speaking — a phenomenon of com- 
paratively recent years. Such a point of view can 
never have been universal, and even its partial ac- 
ceptance can be only temporary. For the effects of 
grafting upon the wolf the qualities of the fox and 
letting it go at that are too serious long to escape 
observation. Hence the wide-spread interest to-day 
in the problem of moral education in the schools. 

It is indeed maintained by some that the proper 
place for moral education is the church and the 
home. The proper place for moral education is 
wherever it can be given. For the' task is at once 
enormously difficult, and one which is vital to hu- 
man society. For our civilization can be preserved, 
to say nothing of being rendered worth preserving, 
only in so far as every agency uses all its powers to 
this end. And if the home (and to a considerable 
extent this statement holds for the church) ever 
does its full part it will be because for a generation 
the school has impressed upon its pupils the value 
of character by the training and instruction which 
it has given them, and shown them how — for it is 
no easy matter — ^to train and instruct the children 
who, when they themselves become parents, will be 
entrusted to their care. Here, if anywhere, apply 
the words of von Humboldt: "What you wish to 



4 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

see appear In the life of a nation must be first intro- 
duced into the schools." 

Limitations of the Moral Influence of the 
Church. — Furthermore, while home and church 
have many advantages over the school as the seat of 
moral education, the school in its turn has and al- 
v^ays will have certain great advantages peculiar to 
itself. The limitations of the influence of the church 
are easily discovered. It fails entirely to reach a 
considerable proportion of the population; it se- 
cures a large am.ount of time and attention from 
only a very small part of the community. Those 
who carry its message to the children, whether in 
church service or Sunday-school, are too often with- 
out pedagogical experience, or skill, or knowledge 
of and sympathy with the child's point of view. The 
great Roman Catholic communion has virtually ad- 
mitted the truth of this contention by its practise of 
establishing a very expenwive system of parochial 
schools to supplement the influences of the church. 

Limitations of the Moral Influence of the 
Home. — The home, too, has its own limitations 
as compared with the school. A higher average of 
intelligence and character undoubtedly obtains 
among school-teachers than among the adult pop- 
ulation as a whole; and it must never be forgot- 
ten that intelligence is an indispensable factor in de- 
veloping character. Teachers are as a class more 
interested in and also more familiar with the meth- 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 5 

ods of producing results upon immature human 
personalities than are parents. What is even more 
important, you can often do with a group of chil- 
dren what you can not do with the individual alone. 
At the theater we laugh or weep, as one of a crowd, 
as we should never do while witnessing a private 
performance. Poetry means more to us when 
we read it in the company of others than when 
we read it alone. Similarly, what is said, and not 
merely what is said but what is done in the presence 
of a class, has a distinctly greater effect than when 
it is said or done in the comparative solitude of the 
home. 

Another fact must be taken Into consideration. 
There are men high in the business and political life 
of the United States whose home life is beautiful, 
but who are so crooked or so unfeeling in their rela- 
tions with all outside its boundaries that they are a 
curse to their country and their age. Like many 
savages, they recognize moral relations only within 
the limits of the tribe, and their tribe is their family. 
This tendency to limit the area of one's obligations 
is deep-seated in human nature; few entirely escape 
it. As a consequence it is possible for children to 
grow up in model relations to parents, brothers, and 
sisters, and yet lack most of the essentials of char- 
acter. The child in the school is trained, or may be 
trained, to take its proper place in a larger world, a 
world consisting mainly of mere acquaintances, a 



6 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

world consisting also of his equals in age, and 
power, and experience. Good parents will, of 
course, educate their children for the larger life. 
But the school child is actually leading the larger 
life. In developing an interest in those who share 
this life with him he leaps the bounds of family 
morality, and takes the great step of coming to love 
his neighbor, even if he has not thereby attained 
the insight that his neighbor is any fellow-being that 
needs his help, whatever his race or creed. 

The School Not a Mere Makeshift for Church 
and Home. — The school, then, is something 
more than a mere makeshift to take the place of a 
church to whose voice many are invincibly deaf, 
and a home derelict in its duty. It is an institution 
extremely well adapted at many points for the culti- 
vation of character and capable of indefinite im- 
provement in this as in the other departments of its 
work. Its duty in this matter to the state and 
equally to the individuals placed in its care is thus 
beyond dispute. 

Moral Education as a Source of Class-Room 
Efficiency. — There is, however, another reason 
why the school must devote itself to this work — for 
the sake, namely, of its own efficiency. We have 
built gymnasiums in our school buildings, and made 
games and sports an integral part of the school life, 
not merely for the sake of our pupils' future physi- 
cal well-being, but also because we recognize that 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 7, 

the best school work can be done only where the 
brain is supplied with pure, well-aerated blood. The 
clogged brain means the dull mind. Similarly with 
morals. An utterly unreasonable and unnecessary 
proportion of our efforts as teachers goes to waste 
because pupils are unconscientious in their work, 
and that in a dozen directions. As an agency for 
making school work effective, moral education is 
demonstrably worth many fold the requisite amount 
of time and energy. 

What Some Great Educators Have Accom- 
plished. — What the school can accomplish in the 
way of character building may be seen from the 
results obtained by Arnold at Rugby. Arnold, to 
be sure, was a genius, and he had his pupils under 
his influence for every hour of the waking day. But 
where genius leads we less gifted mortals may fol- 
low in its footsteps, as has been proved by the Eng- 
lish preparatory schools. And while the boarding- 
school has its own peculiar advantages it is, on the 
other hand, handicapped by corresponding disad- 
vantages, while many of the sources of influence 
which it uses are equally open to schools of all 
forms. The most significant contribution made to 
the theory of moral education by such men as Ar- 
nold is, indeed, not the particular devices which they 
introduced, or the institutions which they created or 
reshaped. It is rather the demonstration of the 
fact that every human being is born — not, indeed, 



8 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

with an illimitable number of possibilities which the 
environment may evoke without let or hindrance — 
but rather with a very considerable number of po- 
tentialities for both good and evil, and that it is in 
the power of the teacher to cause the former to 
grow and bear fruit — the latter to atrophy and dis- 
appear. One of the most beautiful illustrations of 
what moral education can accomplish, and at the 
same time what limitations are set to it by the nature 
of the material with which it works, is afforded by 
the experience of the great French preacher Fene- 
lon, as tutor of the Duke of Burgundy, grandson of 
Louis XIV. Their relationship and its results in 
the formation of character should be studied by 
every one who is interested in moral education. 



Part I: The Influence of Personality 
CHAPTER II 

THE PERSONALITY OF THE TEACHER 

The Importance of the Personality of the 
Teacher. — The most important single force at 
the disposal of the school for the upbuilding of char- 
acter is undoubtedly the character of the teacher. 
Conduct is subject to the influence of contagion as 
to nothing else in the world. While this influence 
can radiate from the portrayals of biography — 
Henry IV of France called Plutarch his conscience 
— it reaches its highest potency when life comes 
into direct contact with life. It is always true that 
"nobleness enkindles nobleness," or tends to do so. 
But it molds our conduct most effectively when it 
enters into the circle of our own daily life. For 
then we can see its good works with our own eyes, 
appreciate their value because their advantages ac- 
crue in part to ourselves or to those with whom we 
are personally acquainted, and realize their cost to 
the giver because he is for us a concrete, living per- 
sonality, in whose place we can put ourselves in 
imagination, and to whom we can feel a personal 
gratitude. 

The consequent effects upon character are not due 

9 



10 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

primarily to any blind impulse to imitate modes of 
outer action as such. For the undiscriminating 
tendency to imitate those parts of an action which 
are visible to the eye has little significance for edu- 
cation beyond infancy, or indeed, for any other de- 
partment of practical life.* The only form of imi- 
tation in which the educator has any great interest 
is selective; it depends upon the pre-existing likings 
and admirations of him who imitates, and works 
through its tendency to strengthen these, or to 
point the road to their goal. The power of 
imitation as an educating force depends chiefly 
on the fact that what we admire in another 
we desire to possess for ourselves, and to the fact 
that where the mind has been rendered alert and 
receptive by admiration and affection it tends to 
enter more easily into the feelings and ideals of the 
one admired, and having there caught a glimpse of 
their value, to carry them back to itself, with the 
consequent enrichment of its own nature. 

While character is the direct source of these ef- 
fects in the field of morals, it can exert the highest 
and most complete influence upon others only when 
it is an element in a large, impressive personality. 



* Much nonsense has been written about imitation, some of 
it by those who should know better. The most serious blun- 
ders in the literature of the subject are due to an uncritical 
use of the same name for half a dozen psychologically differ- 
ent processes. In this situation it is a pleasure to be able^ to 
refer the reader to Professor McDougall's discriminating 
treatment of the subject in his Social Psychology, chapter iv. 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 11 

Keenness of observation, sanity and clarity of judg- 
ment, breadth of view, tact, refinement of taste, 
richness of nature, dignity of carriage both in body 
and mind, yes, and a healthy sense of humor — these 
arouse their quota of admiration, too, and increase 
tremendously the influence of the teacher's charac- 
ter. If, in addition, he possesses the secret by 
which, without any pandering to popularity or other 
sacrifice of the essentials of dignity, he can obtain 
admission to the "tribal pale" as a leader among 
equals in the free activities of his pupils, there are 
few positions in the world which can compare with 
his in power for good. 

The teacher will realize more completely the re- 
sponsibility of his position if he recognizes the fact 
that character acts upon character not merely 
through its power to awaken admiration, but also 
as a demonstration of the reality of the higher 
ranges of human nature. "Go with mean people 
and you think life mean," writes Emerson. And 
when you think meanly of humanity your enthusi- 
asm for making life better tends to be lamed, and 
your desire to exert yourself for the benefit of your 
fellow men tends to be hamstringed. If in this sit- 
uation the pupil sees before him moral excellence 
as an undeniable reality, the experience may be to 
him a revelation of a new world. With a well- 
grounded faith in its existence, admiration may then 
lead him to enter. 



12 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

The Limitations of Its Effectiveness. — We 
may agree, then, that the personahty of the teacher 
may be the most important single force in the work 
of moral education. In view, however, of the com- 
placent attitude of many school authorities, who, 
having obtained teachers of high character, think 
they have done all that is necessary for the moral 
w^elfare of their pupils, emphasis must be placed on 
the fact that serious limitations are set to the influ- 
ence of the teacher, even of the teacher possessing 
the best type of character. In consequence of this 
fact we are not justified in depending for results 
upon this agency alone. The extent and importance 
of these limitations will appear if we inquire to what 
causes they are due. Among the most important are 
the following. 

(1) The Good Tends to Pass Unnoticed. — The 
first applies everywhere, alike in and out of school. 
It is a well-nigh universal tendency to notice only 
the bad in human conduct, and ignore, or take for 
granted, the good. To be sure, when the latter is 
exceptional in degree or dramatic in circumstance, 
as unexpected and exceptional control of temper in 
a very difficult situation, public acknowledgment of 
a fault or mistake, an instance of special kindness 
for one who has been making life miserable for the 
teacher, then recognition is instant and hearty. But 
the teacher may be a miracle of sincerity, honesty, 
or justice, and no one think anything about it, be- 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 13 

cause the opportunit}^ for insincerity and trickiness 
is not noticed and the strength of the temptation is 
not reaHzed. It is possible for a pupil (I speak from 
my recollection as a pupil) to be for many months 
with a teacher of exceptional devotion, and yet, 
until years of reflection have come, to be conscious 
of no element of the character except a few petty 
flaws. Great virtues were eclipsed by small defects, 
as a penny held before the eyes will hide the sun. 
The matter is made worse by the fact that the imma- 
ture minds of the pupils — like the immature minds 
of most adults — are unable to distinguish between 
faults that are fundamental and those which lie on 
the surface. 

(2) The Schoolroom Offers a Limited Field 
for the Display of Character.— Excellence of 
character is often concealed by the commonplaceness 
of the forms in which and the narrowness of the 
stage on which it is exhibited in the e very-day life of 
the school. The routine of the school is such, and 
on the whole necessarily such, that many traits of 
character which the teacher may possess have no 
opportunity to express themselves. Teacher and 
pupil are living, for the most part, in a single rela- 
tionship, their characters touching at the edges, so 
to speak, rather than at their broad surfaces. The 
school activities follow approximately the same lines 
day after day, and do not offer a wide range of sit- 
uations to be met. Many of the qualities needed in 



14 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

business, civic, and even domestic life, find no place 
for their exercise in the schoolroom. The teacher 
may possess them, but the pupil has no way of dis- 
covering the fact. They are accordingly practically 
non-existent, as far as their direct influence upon 
him is concerned. While the "schools of to-mor- 
row," if to-morrow ever comes, may afford the 
teacher's character more scope for activity, yet at 
bottom the situation in this matter will always re- 
main a good deal the same. I do not, in my own 
thinking, lay great stress upon education for the 
heroic virtues or the heroic forms of the ordinary 
virtues. Nevertheless it may be pointed out as an 
illustration of the limitations of the range of the 
teacher's influence, that opportunity to practise great 
self-sacrifice, or to show moral heroism in any of its 
forms, is extremely rare in the school world. On 
the other hand the more intimate personal relation- 
ships in which, in one way or another, the character 
might exhibit itself more freely, are made almost 
impossible by a variety of circumstances. Among the 
most important of these are the size of classes and 
the excessive amount of work already required of 
the teacher — a considerable portion of it being cler- 
ical drudgery of secondary importance, which makes 
it imperative that hours outside of those which the 
school board demands should be spent in rest and 
recreation. 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 15 

(3) Men Teachers Do Not Represent Their 
Pupils' Ideal of Success. — In many communities 
the teacher — at least the male teacher — does not rep- 
resent the pupils' ideal of success. He lacks the one 
thing needful in their eyes — wealth. Unaccus- 
tomed as most Americans are to look upon business 
from any other point of view than its power to pro- 
duce a big income, ignorant of the fact that the 
essential thing in choosing a vocation, even from the 
point of view of personal enjoyment, is that it shall 
represent an activity appealing to one's pov/ers and 
interests, they can not see how any normal human 
being can deliberately adopt a career that cuts off 
the opportunity for obtaining wealth. Two possi- 
bilities only are conceivable to them. Either the 
teacher is a somewhat uncanny creature, too differ- 
ent from themselves to be intelligible or interesting, 
or else he has not brains enough to succeed in a 
man's (i. e., money-making) career, and knows it. 
This limitation, of course, tells less heavily against 
women. 

(4) Women's Influence upon Boys Has Defi- 
nite Boundaries.— -Another limitation of the influ- 
ence of the teacher is that teachers are almost en- 
tirely women. Now there is much that a woman 
can do for a boy just as effectively as a man. In 
fact a high-school system containing approximately 
an equal number of men and women is perhaps the 



16 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

ideal for both girls and boys, while the grades can 
easily carry a very large majority of women. But 
however high the character, keen and sympathetic 
the intelligence, quick and sure the tact, there are 
certain fields where it is — I will not say impossible, 
for few things are impossible, but at all events very 
difficult and very rare for a woman to impress her 
ideals upon boys over thirteen years of age. These 
are especially the problems of vice — by which I 
mean something more than licentiousness — the 
problems of business life, what constitutes success 
in life (which is, as we shall see, first and foremost 
a moral problem), and the field of civic relation- 
ships. In the last, conditions may change, but in 
the others I believe they can never change. Ideals 
of success, in particular — I can not but believe — the 
boy will continue to take predominantly from men. 
As he is to be a man, not a woman, he can never 
feel sure that a woman's judgments in such matters 
will hold for him. In fact, even if convinced that a 
woman's judgment was better, he would, in most 
cases, rather fail with other men than succeed with 
women. In a word, it is a man that he wants to be, 
not a sexless adult. The way in which boys — and I 
am thinking of boys with strong literary and artistic 
tastes — will cling to their one man teacher in a high 
school, and if he is any good at all, almost deify him, 
is striking and touching evidence of the hunger of 
the boy for guidance in the path of life by a man. 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 17 

That some of this mascuHne influence is desired 
almost equally by the girls, and would be almost 
equally valuable to them, I myself have not the 
slightest doubt. 

(5) Admiration Does Not Necessarily Produce 
Principles.— The last limitation which I shall 
mention is the most fundamental of all. A high- 
school girl attending a teachers' certificate examina- 
tion saw a teacher, for whom she had a great admira- 
tion, examining some work she had just done on a 
piece of scratch paper. She interpreted the act as 
cheating, on the assumption that the teacher was 
copying from previously prepared notes. There- 
upon she said to herself: 'Tf Miss cheats, 

it is all right for me to cheat, too," and acted accord- 
ingly. The fundamental trouble with this young 
woman evidently was that she had no principles of 
her own. Moral education has not reached its 
goal till there have been adopted principles which 
enable their possessor to stand on his own feet, re- 
gardless of what others may do. 

The Necessity of Creating Special Channels of 
Influence. — Notwithstanding the existence of 
these important limitations the thesis of this chapter 
stands fast. Character, not indeed in its mediocre 
but in its higher incorporations, and when exhibited 
under the more favorable conditions, possesses 
greater potentialities for good than any other single 
educative force, and is moreover the fundamental 



18 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

condition of success in any scheme of moral educa- 
tion. But just because of these Hmitations, if for no 
other reason, the mere existence in the class room of 
a teacher possessed of character and personality is 
not sufficient. There must, in addition, be supplied 
special channels through which the ideals of the 
teacher may pass over into the life of the pupil. The 
systems of moral training and instruction described 
in this book offer precisely such channels. 

The Qualifications of a Good Teacher. — -After 
all necessary allowances have been made, however, 
the direct influence of the teacher must be regarded, 
at least under favorable circumstances, as the most 
important single factor that can be provided for the 
upbuilding of character in the school. If so, the first 
care of the educational authorities must be to secure 
such influence and to supply the conditions which 
will permit and encourage its freest exercise. The 
teachers selected must be men and women of pos- 
itive personalities. This means, on the moral side, 
that they are not merely respectable in their conduct, 
but are also inspired by an ardent love of righteous- 
ness, and a controlling desire to see it prevail in the 
world. They must possess the ability to get the 
pupil's point of view, for he is not likely to be at- 
tracted toward those whose interests and outlook he 
feels to be utterly alien to his own ; at the same time 
their eye must be able to penetrate to regions beyond 
the range of his contracted vision. They should 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 19 

have a genuine love for their profession, not merely 
because of its value to the world, but also as an art 
whose successful exercise appeals to them for its 
own sake. They should possess some vision of the 
place of the school in modern life, as the instrument 
by which the acquisitions of the past which consti- 
tute its contributions to civilization are transmitted 
to the oncoming generation, and the instrument by 
which, at the same time, the young are prepared for 
the largest and richest life of which they are capa- 
ble. They should have built up in their minds a 
picture of the kind of men and women the world of 
to-day needs, the world of to-morrow will need. 
Most of all they should be impelled by genuine hun- 
ger to shape their pupils' minds and characters into 
the forms of their own ideals and a faith in the pos- 
sibility of at least partial attainment. Finally, if the 
personality here described is to leave its full impress 
upon the children of the schools, it must be sup- 
ported by abounding physical vigor. A certain city 
habitually and ruthlessly overworks its teachers. 
What is the result? This grasping community, in- 
tent upon getting something for nothing, as a matter 
of fact overreaches itself. For the children sent to 
its schools are gaining from their over- fatigued 
and listless teachers neither knowledge (in any ap- 
preciable amount), nor training in intellect or char- 
acter, nor anything, in fact, but an ineradicable con- 
viction that "much study is a weariness of the flesh." 



20 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

How the Demand May Be Supplied.— The 
ideal here presented is a high one, and since excel- 
lence of every kind is rare, it may be asked where 
such teachers are to be found in sufficient numbers 
to be a significant factor in the moral progress of the 
nation. For it is not merely devotion that is in 
question, but also insight into life. The answer 
must be supplied in part by our normal schools and 
universities. We need a partial change of empha- 
sis, and, to a certain extent, of subject-matter, in 
our courses for the training of teachers. What these 
institutions leave undone, the principal himself must 
do for his teachers. Experience will demonstrate, 
in particular, that every carefully conceived plan 
alike of moral training and moral mstruction deep- 
ens the moral insight and enriches the character of 
those who conduct it. 

The power to improve conditions in this matter 
lies, however, chiefly in the hands of the school 
boards and the communities which they represent. 
They must so shape conditions as to attract into the 
profession of teaching the desired kind of men and 
women in larger numbers than are to be found to- 
day, and to keep them permanently. To this end, 
they must pay adequate salaries, assure permanence 
of tenure during good behavior, and maintain a sys- 
tem of promotion on the sole basis of merit. As 
every university teacher knows, many men who 
would do the best kind of work in the field of morals 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 21 

as in other departments of education, are deterred by 
the existing material conditions from entering the 
teaching profession. They are not looking for the 
great financial prizes, but they do demand a living 
wage. Furthermore, if positive and systematic ef- 
forts to develop character are to be expected from 
any large proportion of our teachers, the same 
amount of financial and other recognition must 
be accorded to success in this form of work as 
to equal success in any other. In addition, the 
size of classes must be reduced, the demand for an 
excessive amount of work, in particular of clerical 
drudgery, must absolutely cease. Finally, the lead- 
ers of public opinion must set their faces like flint 
against any movements in the community, the prac- 
tical effects of which will be to render impossible an 
approximate equilibrium in numbers of men and 
women on the staffs of our high schools, recognizing 
in such movements a menace to the highest moral 
welfare of those who will be the leaders of thought 
and action in the next generation. 

Equally important with these more or less ex- 
ternal conditions, the life of the school, both within 
and without the class room, must be so organized 
that the largest possibilities for influence will be 
open to the teacher. 

He himself, after having once been judged com- 
petent for the position, should be allowed great free- 
dom to work out his own policies. Ignorant school 



22 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

boards and fussy superintendents can easily spoil 
a good man's work, or drive him out of the field, 
and indeed out of the profession. Even if he is will- 
ing, or is compelled to stay, interference on the part 
of others will hamper him, for he can do his best only 
by methods which he approves. He should therefore 
be held responsible solely for results. The estab- 
lishment of such conditions will react upon the qual- 
ity of the teaching body, both in intelligence and in 
character. For with adequate opportunities to work 
for results, men and women of force, with positive 
personalities and strong desires to make the world 
better, will be attracted to the profession of teaching 
in larger numbers than at present; and many of this 
kind who have hitherto gone into the ministry will 
see in teaching a still greater opportunity for service. 
In this way, and perhaps chiefly in this way, will be 
solved the problem of getting more men, or rather 
more strong men, into the schools. Already the 
work of the high-school athletic director is attract- 
ing men of this type. Proper organization will make 
room, not merely for one such person, but for many. 
Moral Education Will Give the Teacher a New 
Status in the Community.-— When these changes 
take place the teacher will discover that he has a new 
status in the community. The average man to-day 
looks upon education as consisting solely in the im- 
parting of knowledge, and thinks this a job which 
any one can handle. It is indeed too true that almost 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 2Z 

any one can teach about as well as most of us were 
taught a generation ago. Already, however, many 
business men are feeling acutely the need of higher 
standards of character in the graduates of our 
schools, and they realize the difficulties of getting 
results in the field of morals. He who can get re- 
sults will therefore command their respect. The 
profession whose function it is to get them becomes 
one of dignity. When this stage has been reached, 
the public will be more willing than it is at present 
to supply the material conditions necessary to attract 
good men — higher salaries, security of tenure, ad- 
vancement on the basis of desert, opportunities for 
working out their own ideas, and the rest. Accord- 
ingly, it lies in the interest of the teachers themselves 
that the moral function of the school should obtain 
the widest recognition. 



CHAPTER III 

THE TEACHER AS A FRIEND 

The preceding chapter called attention to the in- 
fluences that flow from the character of a good man, 
perhaps all unconsciously as far as he himself 
is concerned. We now turn to the methods 
which principal and teacher themselves may adopt 
in their conscious endeavor to develop the character 
of their pupils. 

The Conditions of Effective Personal Rela- 
tionships. — Certain methods there are which 
have been employed ever since schools have existed. 
Advice, counsel, encouragement, exhortation, and 
praise and blame are instruments whose value, when 
dispensed in private, requires no recommendation. 
What is rather needed is some clear conception of 
the conditions upon which their effectiveness de- 
pends, and of the limitations to which they are sub- 
ject. I begin with the former. 

Unsought advice, unless the person feels him- 
self already much inclined to the course suggested, 
is usually unwelcome, and where unwelcome, prac- 
tically always unprofitable. The possible exceptions 

24 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 25 

are: 1. Where the adviser shows by his manner of 
deaHng with the subject that he perfectly compre- 
hends your point of view, even if he can not accept 
it as final; 2, where he has already shown not so 
much by his words as by his deeds that he has your 
interests deeply at heart. Exhortation consists in 
saying, I want you to do so and so. Under most 
conditions this information does not interest its re- 
cipient in the slightest degree unless the exhorter 
is an object of at once respect, admiration, and — in 
the majority of cases — gratitude or affection. 
Roughly speaking the same statement holds true 
with regard to the effects of expressions of praise 
or blame on the part of one who, like the teacher, is 
separated by differences in age and other barriers 
from those upon whom he passes judgment. 

The application is obvious. In the first place, 
these instrumentalities will be forever ineffective in 
the hands of teachers who are unsympathetic and 
indifferent, who are chronically harsh, ill-tempered, 
or faultfinding; who arouse hatred or contempt by 
the use of that most brutal form of punishment, sar- 
casm; who through carelessness, prejudice or favor- 
itism exhibit injustice in the treatment of their pu- 
pils ; who are too cowardly to admit ignorance as to 
facts or mistakes in judgment, who are too suspi- 
cious or timid to know when to place confidence in 
the honor of their pupils. In the second place, their 
positive value will depend largely upon the intimacy 



26 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

of personal relationship obtaining between teacher 
and pupil. You must have passed at least the stage 
of mere frigid, formal acquaintanceship which 
characterizes the relations of teacher and taught in 
many schools if you are to be able to point out to 
your pupil freely and effectively the vanity, the 
disregard of others' feelings, the jealousy, the sul- 
lenness, or whatever it may be that disfigures his 
character; if you are to encourage him where he is 
too distrustful of his present aptitudes or past prog- 
ress, and dampen his enthusiasm where the facts 
call for none ; if you are to put in a ''well-done" just 
when and where it is called for. 

How Friendship Arises between Teachers and 
Pupils. — Now these relationships of cordiality 
and sympathy can not be made to order like a suit 
of clothes. In some instances they are the product 
of a crisis. The pupil does something outrageously 
bad or commits some serious error of judgment 
which demands the attention of the teacher, or 
comes to him for advice on matters which perhaps 
have nothing to do with morals, simply because he 
feels sure of sympathetic interest and wise guidance. 
In any of these cases, given the teacher who knows 
how to take advantage of the situation, a half-hour's 
talk may create a friendship. ^ 

Under ordinary circumstances, however, the for- 
mation of personal relationships between two people 
so different as teacher and pupil — like, indeed, most 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 27 

other personal relationships — is a matter of time. It 
means much personal contact of a non-professional 
sort, or if professional, more like that which often 
obtains between business associates. This is one of 
the arguments in favor of multiplication of types 
of class work other than the recitation method, such 
types as obtain in a manual-training class or in many 
laboratories, where individual help is constantly be- 
ing demanded and received. It is an argument for 
the further extension of one of the best forms of 
such intercourse for the purposes here under consid- 
eration, namely, the class excursion. It supplies an 
additional reason in favor of pupil government or 
of such other relations in matters of discipline as 
are described in the following chapter. The end 
will be furthered also by the introduction into the 
larger high schools, at least, of special advisers to 
whom the pupil must report and whom he must con- 
sult concerning his work at stated times, but to 
whom he may go at any time to discuss any subject 
of serious concern to himself. Here belongs again 
the cutting of the size of classes — as soon as the 
number passes thirty, the basis of personal rela- 
tionship is being impaired. Another method of 
great value will be dealt with at length in Chapter 
IX. Its essence is the common participation of pu- 
pils and teachers in play or modes of activity, at 
least, which form no part of the required work. 
This participation, it must be noted, is quite possible 



28 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

in the smaller schools without any of the apparatus 
there described. 

The results will, in many instances, be com- 
pletely satisfactory only if the teacher can know 
something of the out-of -school life, particularly the 
home life, of the pupil. He will thereby not merely 
bring the pupil into closer relationship with himself, 
what is equally important he will learn something 
of the conditions under which the character of his 
pupil is being molded in five out of every six of his 
waking hours. Character is at bottom a good deal of 
a unit, notwithstanding the existence of extraordi- 
nary inconsistencies in its expression. The diagnosis 
of moral ills must ordinarily, therefore, depend for 
its success upon a wide survey of the influences to 
which the will is subject; and the prescription for 
them must sometimes include dealing with condi- 
tions which lie beyond the school walls. It is only 
when the teacher really cares for his pupils as human 
beings and they know it — assuming always that his 
interest does not lead him to be unduly curious about 
what does not concern him, or fussy, or sentimental 
— and when he has, in consequence, established per- 
sonal relationships with them that his character, 
however excellent intrinsically, can have its maxi- 
mum of influence. The child is a great hero-wor- 
shiper. But the younger child especially must under 
ordinarv circumstances be touched with the warmth 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 29 

of human sympathy and affection before he re- 
sponds to or is impressed by the claims of excellence. 

The Limitations of This Method of Moral Ed- 
ucation. — Some people think this personal work 
with and for his pupils (perhaps in addition to the 
maintenance of school discipline) is about all that the 
teacher need do or can do for their moral develop- 
ment. In certain circumstances it is undoubtedly 
the most important service he can perform for them. 
But there are great limitations to its effectiveness 
which ought to be clearly faced. In the first place, 
carried on upon a large scale so as to exert any deep 
and lasting effect upon an appreciable proportion of 
the pupils it is the most time-consuming, the most 
energy-consuming, and in many respects the most 
difficult of any of the methods which we shall have 
occasion to examine. To some teachers — and these 
will include some of the best in all other respects — 
it will always present a closed door, because al- 
though they may have a genuine and deep interest 
in the welfare of their pupils, the latter will never 
believe it. The reason may be that the teacher is 
too gushing for their tastes, or else too shy or too 
cold in manner to gain their friendship ; while others 
again, though most well-meaning, are lacking in the 
necessary tact. 

There is another limitation set to the efficacy of 
advice, exhortation, and blame as instruments for 



30 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

developing character in the school. In four cases 
out of five its beneficiaries will be the bad, and more 
than that, those who show their badness, in one way 
or another in school. The start, at all events, must 
ordinarily be made with wrong-doings, great or 
small, which the teacher has observed, or the effects 
of which he has observed in the class room or on the 
playground. Now, as we have insisted in the pre- 
ceding chapter, the life of the school, even of the 
"school of to-morrow" does not include, by a great 
deal, all the typical situations that occur in the world 
outside. Furthermore, many pupils who are thor- 
oughly selfish, or corrupt, or untrustworthy, or un- 
stable, may be docile and otherwise well-behaved in 
school. As far as their teacher's personal efforts are 
concerned they leave school with the character with 
which they entered. 

Even suppose the really bad were certain to show 
their true nature sooner or later in the school, what 
shall we say of the relatively good? They, too, get 
no special attention. But a moment's thought will 
show two things : First, since the division into two 
mutually exclusive classes, bad and good, is artifi- 
cial, the latter can not possibly be supposed to be 
beyond improvement. Not merely so, the world as 
imperatively needs that the good be made better as 
that the bad should be raised to mediocrity. If we 
do not in the future have more readiness to assume 
tbo duties of citizenship than we have at present, our 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 31 

republican form of government will go to pieces in 
reality even if not in appearance. Matters are bad 
enough as they are, and government is growing, and 
necessarily growing, more complex every year ; con- 
sequently the demand is becoming continually more 
urgent. If we have no higher standards of regard 
for the rights of employees among the employing 
classes than we have had hitherto we shall have in 
one form or another civil war. If we have no higher 
standards of business honor, industrial society will 
break down. The good, I repeat, must be made bet- 
ter, and much better, for the world needs and must 
have a larger number of the best. In the second 
place, a given amount of effort will produce far 
greater returns when applied to those in the upper 
half of the moral scale than those in the lower half, 
for precisely the same reason that a better harvest 
can be obtained with a given expenditure of effort 
from a high-grade than from a low-grade soil. 

We thus return to the leading conclusion of the 
last chapter. The possession of character on the 
part of the teacher is a most important, if you will, 
the most important, factor in the moral progress of 
the race in so far as the schools contribute to such 
progress. Active effort on the part of these teachers 
to go forth and help their pupils by exhortation, 
advice, encouragement, praise (and if necessary 
blame), by assisting them to attain self-knowledge 
through showing them their weak points and when 



32 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

advisable their strong ones — all this is of great im- 
portance also. But the nurture of character is one 
of the most difficult crafts in the world. And these 
measures are, and must always remain, only a part 
of any thoroughgoing campaign in the schools in 
behalf of moral progress. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE TONE OF THE SCHOOL 

A BOOK on moral education must deal from first 
to last with the problem of improving the tone of the 
school. This subject, therefore, would not seem to 
require special treatment. This conclusion fails to 
hold only because of the limitations placed upon 
our influence by the nature of things. The best we 
do can never be wholly successful. Accordingly, the 
question arises : How shall we proceed so that such 
success as we obtain shall inure not merely to the 
benefit of individuals but also through them to the 
school as a whole ? ^ 

One limitation is with us always, that upon our 
time, energy and strength. Most principals can not 
come into personal contact or otherwise do effective 
work of a personal nature with any large proportion 
of their pupils. This is also true of many teachers, 
particularly in the high schools. In such cases our 
influence can reach the many only as it reaches the 
few. The wise policy, then, is to get a hold upon 
the leaders. This is precisely what Arnold did at 
Rugby. He devoted his time and attention to the 
boys of the highest "form" ; and he gave them a po- 

33 



34 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

sition in the school which greatly increased their 
prestige, and thus their hold upon their younger 
schoolmates. There were other things which he did 
to raise the moral standards of the Rugby boys, but 
this was undoubtedly the most important. The prob- 
lem of an American public-school teacher or prin- 
cipal is not quite the same as his, and methods will 
therefore differ; but the principle upon which he 
acted is of universal validity. 

Capturing the Leaders. — There are various 
methods of accomplishing this result. An effective- 
one is to form a school council, elected by the pupils, 
whether for advice or for the exercise of certain 
functions of government is of no importance from 
the point of view of the present problem. Only it 
must be a position of dignity and real influence so as 
to attract the ablest and most influential boys and 
girls of the school. These pupils the principal and 
certain of the teachers may come to know inti- 
mately. These pupils they may seek to mold. From 
them can be discovered the exact state of the school 
in matters of morals, provided the names of indi- 
viduals are not demanded. They can be organized 
to leaven public opinion and fight in whatever man- 
ner may be practicable the evils of the school 
world. One of the defects of our schools, and in- 
deed, to a large extent, of society as a whole, is that 
the bad do all the missionary work. Here is an in- 
strumentality which when inspired and guided by 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 35 

the right man can go out and do battle for good 
standards. With leadership of that kind the great 
majority of our pupils will rally to their support. 

The most effective form of this device with which 
I am acquainted seems to me to be that employed' 
in the Central Eligh School at Grand Rapids, Michi- 
gan. Here a large proportion of the pupils belong 
to some school association of one kind or another. 
The two leading officers of the boys' organiza- 
tions, together with a few other boys chosen to 
represent those who do not care to participate in 
these activities, constitute a Leadership Club which 
meets with the principal at his home one evening 
every two weeks through the school year. The 
girls occupying similar positions meet in the same 
way at the home of the vice-principal, who is a 
woman. They discuss the problems that arise within 
their own organizations and in the life of the school 
as a whole, together with the principles of leader- 
ship. They have also made investigations of such 
matters as cheating, gambling, and smoking. One 
year Professor Jenks' excellent little book, Life 
Questions of High School Boys, was used as a basis 
of discussion in the boys' club. 

Such organizations will accomplish distinctly 
more for the tone of the school, I believe, than a 
council elected by the pupils at large. It will be likely 
to consist of abler and more representative boys and 
girls; in other words, the real leaders. They will 



36 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

have a more definite because more narrowly defined 
sense of responsibility; while all danger of their 
forgetting their responsibility to the school as a 
whole is removed if, as at Grand Rapids, they are 
ex-officio members of the general school council. It 
is certain that the leaven works best when communi- 
cated from individuals to groups. It is equally cer- 
tain that it will in the end quicken the entire body 
when the groups do not represent shoddy aristoc- 
racy, like high-school fraternities, but are open to 
all who care to avail themselves of the privilege, and 
when their membership includes a very considerable 
proportion of the school. It is true the Leadership 
Clubs are the keystone of a somewhat elaborate sys- 
tem. But as will be shown in Chapter IX, such 
a system has its own justification, quite apart from 
this particular form of usefulness. 

Excluding the Bad from Leadership. — ^The 
first move, then, is to capture the leaders. The 
second is to exclude from the positions which usu- 
ally carry leadership those who are, from the char- 
acter of their influence, least fitted for such emi- 
nence. Here certain universities as well as certain 
schools have shown the way. At the University of 
Wisconsin, for example, no one is allowed to repre- 
sent the institution in any manner, in athletics, inter- 
collegiate debating, as member of the glee club, etc., 
who has not been in residence at least a year, who 
has not obtained in the preceding semester an aver- 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 37 

age class standing of seventy-seven, seventy being 
the passing mark, and who has any unsatisfied fail- 
ure, condition, incomplete or disciplinary penalty on 
his record. The effects of this legislation have been 
marked. There was a time when the influence ex- 
erted by certain members of our football team was 
in every respect deplorable. Under the present ar- 
rangement the worst of such men would not even 
attempt to enter the institution, and if they did enter, 
could never "make" the teams. As mere private in- 
dividuals, of course, the poisons they exude can de- 
moralize, in the main, only those individuals who 
choose to become their personal associates. 

In the University of Chicago High School this 
principle is carried one step farther. At the close 
of each session emblems are publicly awarded to 
members of the athletic team who have been repre- 
senting the school, by vote of the faculty committee 
on athletics upon the recommendation of the mem- 
ber of the department of athletics in charge of the 
team, and of the captain. These emblems, however, 
are granted not merely for athletic prowess, but also 
for faithfulness in training and loyalty to the team 
and school. The recipient must also have met the 
scholastic standards required of the members of all 
teams. It will be seen, accordingly, that the object of 
hero-worship in that institution is likely to be a 
pretty satisfactory sort of boy. As a step in the 
same direction the colleges connected with the "Big 



38 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

Nine" in the western athletic world are offering a 
medal for the athlete in each institution who most 
completely represents what may be called roughly 
the Cecil Rhodes ideal of personality. 

Segregation or Expulsion of the Hopelessly 
Bad.- — When, notwithstanding these measures, 
boys of a considerable influence for evil are found to 
be injuring in any serious degree the tone of the 
school, and it has been shown that they can not be 
reached by influences for good, then they should be 
forcibly removed from contact with their school- 
mates. In the high school this would mean expul- 
sion. In the elementary school, through which, in 
self-defense, society must send, or ought to send, 
every child, it would involve the segregation of the 
boy in a special school, or, if the city is too small, an 
ungraded class for incorrigible truants and delin- 
quents, in charge of teachers trained to deal with 
this kind of pupil.* The public school, supported by 
taxpayers, is not a charitable institution. It is mor- 
ally bound to return an equivalent to the citizens in 
the way of boys and girls able and willing to serve 
the community. Any one who by his conduct mili- 
tates against or endangers this end has forfeited all 
right to its privileges, even if his father does bear 
one ten-thousandth part, or, for that matter, one- 
hundredth part, of the expense of maintenance. The 



* See Julia Richman, The Incorrigible Child, in Proceedings 
of the National Education Association, igo6, pp. 158-173. 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 39 

rights of the majority are here paramount, and it 
is the duty of the principal to protect them. In jus- 
tice, therefore, to the better pupils who may show 
for life the evil effects of contamination, and in its 
own interest, society must bear the financial burden 
involved in segregation in the elementaiy-school age. 
While in the high-school period, if it can be shown 
that dismissal followed only upon the exhaustion 
of all methods for the reclamation of the boy, the 
courts will protect the principal in the exercise of 
his duty. 



Part II: Moral Training 
CHAPTER V 

THE DISCIPLINE OF THE SCHOOL 

Apart from the agencies thus far considered, 
moral education has at its disposal two great instru- 
mentalities, moral training and moral instruction. 
We shall begin with an examination of the former 
in its more important varieties. 

Moral Training Defined.-— Moral training may 
be defined as the education or nurture of character 
by means of action. Action, to be sure, is a slippery 
term, but tliis definition will serve our purpose. 

The Distinction between Loyalty and Con- 
formity to the Moral Ideal. — Moral training is 
often described as the creation of a system of habits. 
But this can not be accepted without careful discrim- 
ination as an account of moral training. The cashier 
of a bank, let us say, is of an honesty so deeply en- 
grained that it has become a habit. But this habit 
had its source in a motive or group of motives, and 
is kept alive — as a tree is kept alive by its roots — not 
solely but none the less in part, by the motive. Sup- 
pose this to be a preference for living on a modest 
salary in Madison, Wisconsin, to living in wealth as 
a fugitive from justice in St. John, New Brunswick. 

40 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 41 

No doubt all the depositors in the bank rejoice in 
the existence of this preference, and, if necessary, 
would gladly cooperate in strengthening it. But 
has such honesty a moral value? The question an- 
swers itself. The man's honesty is mere outer con- 
formity to the demands of morality, not inner devo- 
tion or loyalty to the moral ideal. 

Morality, then, consists in the fact that a man's 
outer actions have their source in a certain spirit, a 
spirit which for the present it will be sufficient to 
designate as the spirit of loyalty to the moral ideal. 
The physician who orders an operation merely be- 
cause he happens to need the money is a rascal, even 
if it should turn out, on opening up the patient, that 
the operation was actually needed in order to save 
his life. Not that the bare existence of a righteous 
motive is enough. It must possess sufficient strength 
to pass over into action, except in the face of ob- 
stacles which no wit of the individual can overcome 
— otherwise the man is a mere sentimentalist. But 
the spirit or motive must be the source of the action, 
if the latter is to deserve the name of moral. 

The distinction here made is constantly over- 
looked in the literature of moral education. But it 
is of tremendous practical importance. For while 
you will not ordinarily find the spirit without the 
corresponding action, since faith without works is 
dead, you very frequently find the latter without 
the former. The outer action is indeed valuable; 



42 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

that goes without saying. But the desirabihty of its 
being inspired by the fitting motive is evident from 
this fact (among others) that it is the only sufficient 
guarantee of its performance in the dark. 

When you are talking about creating moral hab- 
its, therefore, it is well to know what you are talk- 
ing about. Do you mean outer conformity, or inner 
loyalty? Now if any one wishes to write on the 
best methods of producing the former, let him by all 
means do so. This book, however, has a different 
problem, namely, education in morality. I shall 
therefore confine myself to those aspects of habit 
which concern the creation, preservation, and 
growth of loyalty to the moral ideal. 

External Discipline Can Not Create Character. 
— Many teachers apparently suppose that the school 
as it now exists contains and uses a practically 
sufficient system of moral training in the main- 
tenance of the routine of school work. We are de- 
manding from our pupils, they say, the exercise of 
regularity, punctuality, neatness, accuracy, industry, 
obedience, and other similar virtues, and demanding 
them every day in the school week for years, until 
ultimately they become habits. What more could 
any one want ? Now I at least shall not deny that all 
this is good as far as it goes. Indeed it is so com- 
pletely indispensable, in my opinion, that I do not 
believe the school can carry on successfully the work 
of character building unless such an amount of these 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 43 

characteristics as is needed to obtain intellectual re- 
sults is demanded and obtained. Nevertheless, I 
believe that the maintenance of school discipline, 
however important it may be as a means to the end 
of getting the work of the day accomplished, is a 
matter of only secondary importance in the develop- 
ment of character. 

The Insufficiency of the School Virtues.— -The 
grounds on which this statement is based are the 
following : In the first place it is obvious that most 
of the school virtues, as we may call them, are not 
in themselves, in the strictest sense of the term, vir- 
tues at all. They are rather modes of action which 
will be either bad or good according to the ends for 
which they are employed. Whether obedience is a 
desirable trait depends on whom we obey, and under 
what conditions we obey him. The obedience of 
the angels to Satan in Paradise Lost is not com- 
monly set up as a model for imitation by aspiring 
youth. Similarly, industry and perseverance in kill- 
ing off rivals by whatever means come to hand are 
no more virtues in a business man than are industry 
and perseverance in a burglar. 

More important than the preceding consideration, 
however, is the fact that even when these qualities 
are exhibited in the most exemplary pursuits, at best 
they represent merely the beginnings of character. 
We want, in addition, that healthy mindedness 
which either crushes the temptations of vice or 



44 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

raises one above them. There are high schools where 
the discipHne — in a broad and in the best sense 
of the term — is excellent, and yet where vice is ram- 
pant. In the second place, the world's fundamental 
need is integrity, or trustworthiness, in its many 
forms. This is the foundation of a healthy business 
and political life, and is one of the foundation stones 
of all the deeper and more satisfying personal rela- 
tionships, as those in the family and between 
friends. Again we need the spirit of active service, 
directed to the interests of others, whether indi- 
viduals or society as a whole, or any of its larger or 
smaller groups, the spirit which is not content with 
saying: "You can not point to any one I have in- 
jured," but goes beyond this and asks : "What can 
I do to benefit my neighbor, my country, or the 
world?" Finally — to pass over much of the greatest 
importance — we want, as soon as it can be obtained, 
thought fulness about the problems of life, with its 
resultant judgment of values. We want this both 
for the sake of the pupil himself, who, if he is like 
most persons, will be constantly deluded through 
life into pursuing glittering appearances which have 
either no permanent value or no value at all, and we 
want it for the sake of those with whom he will 
come in contact, since in the pursuit of his will-o'- 
the-wisps he may be tempted to trample upon the 
most sacred rights of his fellow men. Obviously, 
then, submissiveness to the demands of school rou- 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 45 

tine is only a start in the carrying out of an ade- 
quate problem of moral training. 

The Insufficiency of Habits of Outer Conform- 
ity. — There exists still another limitation which 
demands more careful consideration. The school, 
as we have seen, prides itself upon having created a 
set of moral habits. But habit merely means doing 
what you have done before. What starts the habit? 
If fear of punishment, or the desire for the appro- 
bation of the teacher or parent, or some other motive 
equally external to character, the results are of no 
great value. There are two reasons for this state- 
ment. In the first place we are trying to develop 
character, yet all we are actually doing is to start a 
habit of reacting to the fear of penalty or to the 
shrinking from disapproval, motives which, as I 
have already pointed out, are valuable enough in 
their place, but do not represent character. Accord- 
ingly, even when we are successful, the result is 
merely fear or approbativeness mechanized, exhib- 
iting itself in actions which are in outer conform- 
ity to the requirements of morality. 

It is doubtful, however, whether even this imper- 
fect result is attained permanently. For when the 
pressure exerted by school or home is removed the 
chances are that the resulting modes of action will 
disappear, at least in the face of temptation. What 
has been created is the habit of reacting to a certain 
stimulus. Accordingly, when the stimulus ceases 



46 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

to work the corresponding reaction tends to cease 
also — not infrequently with a riot of rejoicing at 
the newly acquired freedom. 

The members of the athletic teams of our high 
schools are not allowed to smoke during the train- 
ing season. Do they or do they not return to their 
smoking after they have ^'broken training"? Our 
high-school principals have but one answer. Habits 
of promptness, neatness, order, etc., are fairly well 
enforced in our American schools. Do business 
men who employ the boys fresh from the schools 
find these qualities engrained in them ? So far from 
it that there are constant complaints at their absence. 
I have had occasion to observe the effects of the 
training given by military schools, after their pupils 
have become students at the university. In the ma- 
jority of cases — not all — a year is sufficient to re- 
move all traces of the training so carefully enforced 
in such matters as order and neatness. 

Suppose the graduate of such a school has been 
taught in this external fashion, both at school and 
at home, to tell the truth. He enters the employ- 
ment of a man who orders him to lie to his custom- 
ers. The penalty for refusal is dismissal. If the po- 
sition is a promising one, how long will the op- 
position of a merely mechanically acquired habit 
like this last? Evidently when a young man 
leaves school he must go forth equipped not merely 
with habits, but also with so profound a sense of the 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 47 

importance of the modes of conduct which they rep- 
resent that he will value them more highly than what 
he may lose by his loyalty to them. 

The formation of habits, then, in the fashion rec- 
ommended by Locke in his Thoughts on Education, 
and all too faithfully followed by many teachers and 
parents to this day — the formation of habits in this 
fashion is but one step in the solution of a great 
problem. It creates at best a machine which when 
well started would doubtless run on forever if it 
were not for the existence of friction. But morality 
involves conflict with opposing forces, and in this 
we must depend not upon inertia but life. What is 
required, therefore, even in the interest of a perma- 
nent outward conformity, is a spirit of positive and 
ardent devotion to moral ideals. "No virtue is safe 
that is not enthusiastic," writes the author of Ecce 
Homo. Not that it will ever be possible to dispense 
with the training, whether self-imposed or imposed 
by the parent or teacher, that issues in habit. The 
ideal must make a channel by which it habitually 
passes over into action, or the outcome will be a weak, 
nerveless sentimentalist, a nuisance — or worse — to 
others, and a curse to himself. But if the habit is to 
stand the test of time the channel must be made by 
the ideal. From every point of view, then, the pur- 
pose of moral education can be nothing less than fos- 
tering the growth of moral ideals, and supplying fa- 
vorable conditions for the creation and preservation 



48 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

of the habit of obeying them. To the accomphshment 
of this end the discipHne of the ordinary school — 
however valuable it may be in other respects — con- 
tributes directly, at the most favorable account, only 
a comparatively small amount. 

These Facts Do Not Prove that Discipline Is 
Morally Valueless. — The creation of a system of 
habits by the use of fear or approbativeness, or even 
affection, has no direct tendency, I have insisted, to 
develop moral loyalty. But from this it does not 
follow that these agencies have no place whatever 
in a system of moral training. The facts are com- 
plex and, I think, not com.monly understood. I 
shall try to deal with them as a whole later.* I can 
not leave the subject of discipline, however, without 
some reference to certain other aspects of the prob- 
lem. 

The Place of Punishment in the Development 
of Character. — In the school, as in any other 
community, there must be either anarchy or govern- 
ment. The force, which is the essence of govern- 
ment, may have to show itself only infrequently if 
the spirit is good and the teaching staff tactful ; but 
it must be there, and every one must know it is there. 
Force exhibits itself in punishment. Is punishment 
a mere brutal fact, or has it a moral value for the 
person punished ? By this I mean not does it make 

* See chapter xi. 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 49 

him more wary, but does it tend to produce a dif- 
ferent spirit? Properly administered it has a tend- 
ency to do the latter as well as the former. But how 
can pain or loss awaken or strengthen the higher 
motives? By awakening in the pupil a living sense 
of the seriousness of the act he has committed. He 
has trampled upon another person's rights. He has 
done it without feeling what this loss or suffering 
means to the victim — otherwise he could no more 
do it than he could deliberately cut off his own arm 
with a knife. But when he feels the reaction on the 
part of him who suffers or of those who act in his 
behalf, he begins to realize what his deed meant to 
the sufferer; the evil of the thing comes home to 
him, and this experience may create genuine repent- 
ance. 

If this result is to be obtained the punishment 
must not merely be just, it must also be recognized, 
sooner or later, as just by the culprit himself. Other- 
wise the outcome is nothing but fear or defiance. 
This recognition may be produced in several differ- 
ent ways ; by a preexisting, implicit confidence in the 
justice and reasonableness of the teacher; by the 
knowledge that the best sentiment of the class up- 
holds the punishment;* or, most effectively of all, 
by the wrong-doer's own direct insight. The nearer 



* For some very striking illustrations see George, The 
Junior Republic, p. 42ff ; Reeder, How Two Hundred Children 
Live and Learn, pp. 166-169, 



50 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

the punishment is to being the necessary consequence 
of the wrong turned back upon the offender so that 
he must bear the loss which he caused, the more 
hkely is he to feel it to be just. 

The Moral Value of Drudgery. — We turn to 
another aspect of the subject of school discipline. 
Moral conduct is commonly — some authorities 
would say always — a matter of choice. This means 
that there are present in the mind conflicting im- 
pulses, urging in different directions. Victory for 
the good cause may be secured, therefore, not 
merely by strengthening the spirit of devotion to 
moral ideals, but also by weakening its opponents. 
One of the most deadly of these opponents is the 
disinclination for drudgery. A discussion of the 
discipline of the school would be incomplete with- 
out a consideration of what it can accomplish to- 
ward lessening the horror of the normal youth for 
this unpleasant, but unfortunately inescapable ele- 
ment of life. 

By drudgery I mean tasks which have for him 
who performs them no intrinsic interest whatever. 
Drudgery is not identical with hard work. A boy, 
as every one knows, may work harder to build an 
ice-boat than in running errands for his mother, 
but the one is fun and the other a bore. 

An age of self-indulgence like our own cares to 
hear little about so forbidding a subject as drudgery. 
But drudgery, as things are now, forms a very con- 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 51 

siderable proportion of the adult life of the great 
majority of human beings, a large part of the voca- 
tional life of many, andsomepartof the life of prac- 
tically every serious worker who does not shove his 
dirty work over upon some one else. It is found 
not merely on the farm where the cows must be 
milked twice every day, in the kitchen where dishes 
must be washed twenty-one times a week, and in 
the factory v/here the same motion may have to be 
performed fifty thousand times a year. The pro- 
fessional man, — yes, the scientific investigator, the 
painter, and the composer, who is anything more 
than a mere dilettante, meets it again and again. 
There have been great physicians who as students 
have hated anatomy, or certain parts of it, with a 
deadly hatred, but who have nevertheless not per- 
mitted this circumstance to prevent them from mas- 
tering it. This is the only road to genuine achieve- 
ment. ''Es kleht Blut an der Arbeit,'' said Johannes 
Mueller of his physiological investigations. George 
Eliot, Wordsworth, Carlyle and many other of the 
greatest writers often drove themselves to literary 
composition with feelings not much different from 
those with which many a factory worker responds to 
the sound of the whistle. We may, I believe, look 
forward with confidence to the age foretold by Rus- 
xin when the worst forms of drudgery will be ban- 
ished from large sections of human life upon which 
they now rest as a pall. But that can not be in the 



52 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

lifetime of the generation which we are training. 
And it can no more be obliterated entirely while this 
world remains what it is than can death itself. 

These facts we must face without flinching, or 
like other ignored facts they will revenge themselves 
upon us and upon those who are entrusted to our 
care. We must therefore prepare our sons and 
daughters and our pupils not merely to work with 
enthusiasm at tasks they enjoy, but also to work 
conscientiously at tasks they dislike. This it lies 
well within our power to do, through the instru- 
mentality of the discipline imposed by the duties of 
the day, whether in school or at home. For it is pos- 
sible to lower, through habituation, the resistance of 
the natural man to doing the disagreeable, just as it 
is possible to develop an indifference to unpalatable 
food, hard beds, exposure to cold, and much else of 
the same sort. The result is that the task gets 
done, not as the shirk would do it but as a man 
would do it, and that it is done with a minimum of 
friction and thus of boredom. A maxim popular 
among teachers at the present time is that school is 
not a preparation for life but life itself. School 
occupations from which all drudgery has been care- 
fully elin^inated are neither life nor a preparation 
for life. 

A friend once told me that he got more out o'i: 
chemistry than he got out of any other study in his 
college course. He hated it cordially, but he was 




EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 53 

compelled to take it, and he made up his mind he was 
going to get through it with a good mark. When he 
had accomplished this purpose he found himself the 
possessor of an inner strength which he felt was 
worth far more to him than all the knowledge 
gained from those courses in which he was directly 
interested. 

The Place of Drudgery and of Enthusiasm in 
School Work. — All this does not mean that we 
should return to the educational methods of a gen- 
eration ago. For enthusiasm and spontaneity and 
the knowledge from experience that there may be 
joy in hard work are almost as important as moral 
backbone. Education, like the rest of life, is a com- 
promise. What we must insist upon is not that the 
major part of the school day shall be filled with 
drudgery, but that there shall be standards of class 
work and a program of required studies of such a 
nature that every pupil every year will have to do 
a certain kind and amount of work whether he hap- 
pens to like it or not. If this plan is carried out, 
the chances are that every one will be given an op- 
portunity to ''keep the faculty of effort alive by a lit- 
tle exercise every day" ; nor will this exercise be less 
valuable because it is not gratuitous, as Professor 
James recommends in his famous chapter on habit. 

The desirable thing is not that the exercise of 
effort be gratuitous, but that it be self-imposed. As 
in the family we of to-day should demand from our 



54 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

children not mere obedience but reasoned obedience 
— an obedience which recognizes the reason for 
obeying or feels a confidence in its existence- — so in 
the school work we should reveal to our pupils the 
necessity of possessing the ability to stand up under 
drudgery. It is the habit of voluntary acceptance 
of necessary drudgery for the sake of valuable ends, 
it is this which we must seek, above all, to build up 
in their characters. We can do this most effectively 
when they cooperate. And they will cooperate most 
readily if they see not merely the value of the par- 
ticular end to be gained at the time, but also the 
value of the power to say Yes to one's self when the 
whole soul calls out No. However, if they do not 
choose to cooperate, then the task must be imposed 
from without, for the sake of the consequent hard- 
ening of moral fiber. Once imposed, however, every 
effort should be made to bring home to the child the 
rationality of the imposition. 

The Habit of Hard Work. — The discussion of 
this subject would not be complete unless something 
was added about the habit of hard work as such, 
without regard to the feelings with which the work 
is done. As compared with the schools of a gen- 
eration ago, modern schools, particularly, I suspect, 
our modern high schools, have largely ceased to de- 
mand from their pupils genuine, prolonged effort 
in the conquest of difficulties, except, perhaps, the 
difficulties involved in mechanical memorizing. In 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 55 

the past the core of the high-school course consisted 
in the study of mathematics, Latin and Greek. And 
these, whatever their value or lack of value in other 
respects, required for successful prosecution (dis- 
honesty apart) a constant succession of genuine 
struggles with serious difficulties. The result was, 
where proper standards were set, the develop- 
ment of a type of moral muscle — of the qual- 
ities of initiative, persistence and courage which 
our present school curriculum does little to cultivate. 
If the old course of study is to disappear forever 
it is absolutely essential that the modern foreign 
languages, history, and the sciences modify their 
present-day standards and methods radically. For 
as things are now we are threatened with a genera- 
tion of men and women who — as far as their school 
life influences their character — will fall in a limp 
heap in the face of the first intellectual difficulty they 
meet. And if this is their attitude toward intellec- 
tual difficulties, it is likely to become their attitude 
toward the difficulties and temptations of "real life." 



CHAPTER VI 



PUPIL GOVERNMENT 



The fundamental defect in the attempt to develop 
the essential elements of character through school 
discipline lies, as we have seen, in the externality 
of its appeal. 'Following a system in force at Win- 
chester ever since its foundation in 1393, and 
adopted generally into the English endowed prepar- 
atory schools through the success attained in its 
use by Arnold of Rugby, many American teach- 
ers have been attempting in recent years to remove 
this defect by the introduction of pupil government. 
We shall find it profitable to examine the nature and 
workings of this widely-used agency. In so doing 
we shall have in mind, it must be remembered, pri- 
marily the American public school. 

The Meaning of Pupil Government. — Pupil 
government in the school does not mean that the 
authorities turn the conduct of the school over to 
the pupils, without any reservation whatever. Such 
a thing would be impossible. It is self-evident that 
those who possess the power to grant a charter have 
the power to annul it, and that the knowledge of this 
fact serves as an effective check upon abuses. Fur- 

56 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 57 

thermore, the principal always keeps an absolute 
veto in his own hands, even though he may be very 
slow to use it, indeed may never have occasion to 
use it. Pupil government consists, in reality, in the 
cooperation of the pupils with the principal and 
teachers, for the more complete attainment of those 
ends for which the school exists. 

The form adopted may be simple or complex. In 
some schools a more or less elaborate imitation of 
the government of a city or a state is established. 
There are the usual three departments, legislative, 
executive, and judicial. The legislative department 
may consist of two representatives elected from 
each of the participating classes ; the executive, of a 
mayor, together with the heads of certain depart- 
ments and their assistants, as the police department, 
the health department, and the department of tru- 
ancy; the judicial, composed of the judges, the offi- 
cers of the court, the prosecuting attorney, with per- 
haps an attorney for the defense. The principal 
may retain the right to reject, for cause, any offi- 
cial, whether elected or appointed. He ordinarily 
constitutes himself a court of appeal in criminal 
cases. The police department deals with the conduct 
of the class in the halls, playground, not infre- 
quently the streets in the immediate vicinity of the 
school building, the assembly room, and sometimes 
the class rooms. The health department is charged 
with the responsibility, among other things, for the 



58 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

cleanliness of the pupils. The truancy department 
often performs all the functions elsewhere allotted 
to a truant officer. Many principals prefer a system 
with less machinery. The ^simplest possible plan 
consists of two "tribunes" for each class included 
in the scheme, a boy and a girl elected at stated inter- 
vals by their classmates. The legislative power — 
if this is a part of the grant — is represented by an 
elective council whose membership may or may not 
consist of the tribunes. 

Conditions of Success. — The first condition of 
success is of course the personality of the principal. 
Before attempting to put the scheme into operation 
a principal ought to assure himself that he has some 
of the more fundamental qualifications. These will 
be found to include not merely tact, firmness, pa- 
tience and sincerity, but notably also a willingness 
to see things go at times less well than they other- 
wise might. You can not get something for noth- 
ing; and you must in this as in every other form 
of democracy pay for the general diffusion of a 
sense of personal responsibility with a certain 
amount of confusion, want of efficiency, and some- 
times even of injustice. The teacher who can not 
stand this must make up his mind he was not in- 
tended for work of this particular kind. In the sec- 
ond place he must assure himself of the existence of 
proper conditions in the school. Among the most 
important is the existence of a good spirit among 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 59 

the majority of the pupils; that is, a fair amount of 
character, of seriousness of purpose, and an attitude 
of confidence in and friendHness for the teachers 
and principal. Pupil government is not a scheme 
for making something out of nothing. In the third 
place, it should be introduced with the simplest pos- 
sible machinery, however complex it is allowed to 
grow in the end ; and the machinery should never be 
allowed to become more complicated than the needs 
of the situation demand. Machinery for machinery's 
sake or even merely for instruction in civil govern- 
ment seems to me much worse than useless. In the 
fourth place, in the elementary school it should, I 
believe, be first tried with the seventh and eighth 
grades only. I can not believe it should ever be in- 
troduced into the lower half of an elementary school. 
Fifth, the principal should never for a moment allow 
the pupils to entertain the idea that the ultimate 
power is in their hands. In fact, he should at 
stated times point out the exact nature and limi- 
tations of the powers of each party. I myself was 
a participant in a somewhat well-known scheme 
in which the head of the institution let us put our 
hands behind his on the reins and told us we were 
driving. The fraud was of course soon discovered 
and had no tendency whatever to improve our mor- 
als. A system of moral training founded upon a lie 
may perhaps look like good advertising, but it is cer- 
tainly poor business. In the last place, after getting 



60 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

the machinery at work, the principal must watch it 
constantly, never supposing for a moment that it 
will run itself. 

It is certain that the number of failures has been 
much greater than the number of successes, if we 
judge failure by the abandonment of the plan after 
trial. But it may fairly be urged that one success is 
more significant than many failures because it shows 
what can be done by going at the matter in the right 
way. And after all, the right way does not seem to 
be so remote as to be unattainable under fairly nor- 
mal conditions. 

The Results of the System. — Where it has 
been properly conducted it may fairly claim to have 
produced some or all of the following results, in 
greater or less degree. It has trained the pupil to 
see and realize the meaning and value of law — the 
value to the school community of which he is a part, 
and to himself as a member of this community. At 
the same time it trains him in the habit of acting 
in accordance with such insight; indeed the insight 
grows, in part, through his own actions. Ordinarily 
the pupil tends to look upon the laws of the school 
as a more or less arbitrary imposition from without, 
an interference with his liberty which he can only be 
interested in evading. Or if he does not think them 
exactly arbitrary, they are at all events imposed in 
the interest of his teachers or the school authorities. 
He may come to see, however, that all school laws 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 61 

are established chiefly or solely in his own interest 
and that of his fellow pupils, for the attainment of 
those ends for the sake of which the school exists. 
He thus discovers that there is no liberty — the power 
to do and accomplish what one wills — except through 
law. This insight gained, he is on the side of law. 
Thereupon he may practise punctuality, order, and 
the other school virtues without being forced to it 
by any kind of external authority whatever. H so, 
the greatest of results has been attained. The indi- 
vidual consciously adjusts his conduct to the needs 
of the social whole for the sake of the highest ends; 
and government from without has become self-gov- 
ernment, n on the other hand he chooses rather to 
rebel, he will find that the punishment which he 
thereby brings upon himself is imposed not by a for- 
eign power to whose standards he is indifferent, but 
by his peers, and represents their sense of his deserts. 
This may not produce repentance, but as we have 
seen, it is more likely to do so than any amount of 
pain or deprivation inflicted by sheer force from 
above. 

These gains, however, are not the only ones. 
Since pupil government makes or tends to make each 
young citizen realize the value of obedience to law, 
and places upon each one the obligation to do his 
part in the enforcement of law, it will in the more 
favorable instances contribute to the development of 
the spirit which we need in the United States more 



62 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

perhaps than anywhere else in the world, the will to 
defend law against its enemies, particularly its re- 
spectable enemies who are in good and regular 
standing in their community. He comes to recog- 
nize, for example, that the school property is his 
property, and that its injury therefore is not a joke 
or a piece of harmless mischief to be concealed at all 
hazards from the spying eye of the principal; that it 
must consequently be protected not merely against 
his own mischievousness or thoughtlessness or de- 
fiance of authority, but against the attacks of others 
also. 

Many children undoubtedly dislike this feature of 
the scheme. In particular they are afraid of the en- 
mities it may produce. This is precisely the reason 
they need it. For our best chance — apparently — of 
developing the proper spirit in these matters is to be- 
gin with the children. The law-abiding must ac- 
quire the habit of standing by one another under the 
menace of lawlessness. When they succeed ih do- 
ing so they will discover that in most cases the en- 
mity of the lawless is to a large extent mere sound 
and fury, which disappears upon subjection to pen- 
alty. Indeed they will find that many youthful law- 
breakers cherish no grudge whatever against the 
officials who in the discharge of duty bring upon 
them penalties which they know to be deserved. 

This does not mean the encouragement of tattling, 
as the children themselves very well know. Tattling 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 63 

assumes a band of pupils in more or less open enmity 
with the teachers. In such cases the child's native 
response is loyalty to the tribe. This attitude should 
not be broken down. For while it is not the high- 
est thing in the world, it may be the highest to which 
as a child he is able to attain. To shatter this stand- 
ard when at the time he is capable of nothing better 
is a very serious mistake. A writer in the Outlook 
set the entire country debating this question several 
years ago.* Bad, a fourteen-year-old boy, has delib- 
erately broken a school window by throwing a stone 
at it. His classmate Good is perfectly acquainted 
with all the facts. Ought, then, the latter to disclose 
the name of the culprit on the demand of the 
teacher? The answer is certainly, under the condi- 
tions virtually assumed. No. But these conditions 
should not have been allowed to exist. In some fash- 
ion, whether through pupil government or otherwise 
(and pupil government, by itself, may not be able to 
produce it) there should have been created in the 
school a spirit which in nineteen cases out of twenty 
would have led the boy, on demand, to confess and 
pay for the injury done. In the twentieth case it 
could have been allowed to pass until the offense was 
repeated, when in any school under any proper sys- 
tem, upon the suggestion of the principal, if necessary. 



* Harlan E. Hall, The Outlook, vol. 104, p. 563 (July 12, 
1913). 



64 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

the leaders among the pupils would take the matter 
into their own hands and deal with it effectively. 

Pupil government may bring with it other ad- 
vantages. It is a principle to which we shall have 
to refer again and again that activity in behalf of 
a cause even when the initial motive is far from the 
highest, tends to produce a direct interest in the per- 
son or group that the cause is attempting to serve. 
Thus the boys who, in whatever way, are engaged 
in defending school property against vandalism, are 
themselves growing in loyalty to their school, and, 
if the proper transition is made, to their city. The 
leaders are acquiring the qualities which belong to 
leadership. The followers, in many cases, are grow- 
ing in those virtues (they are many and very impor- 
tant) which make the loyal and discriminating fol- 
lower. Finally the system brings teacher and taught 
into relations of mutual understanding and sym- 
pathy, and leads to a spirit of cordial cooperation 
which is in itself for the teacher or principal a suffi- 
cient reward for all his expenditures in the way of 
labor and watchfulness and perhaps anxiety. 

Its Dangers. — Like everything else in the 
world, pupil government has the defects of its qual- 
ities. A serious one is not infrequently noticed, 
namely, ward politics. Another is the "swell head" 
which in other places besides the school afflicts 
those dressed in a little brief authority. With re- 
gard to these evils it can only be said that the rem- 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 65 

edy lies in the personality of the principal or the 
teacher. If he can impress the officials with a 
sense of the service to be performed, and imbue 
them with something of the spirit of the servant of 
their fellows, the more serious excrescences of the 
system will not appear. 

Pupil Government vs. Self-Government. — 
Every school, it seems to me, should have a pupil 
council, which, whether in a merely advisory ca- 
pacity or otherwise, shall deal with problems of leg- 
islation. But the work of the police and the court 
presupposes evil done, and a system which is at all 
elaborate presupposes a good deal of it. What is to 
be done, then, in a school where the spirit is so good 
that serious and even minor infractions of rules are 
so rare that corrective machinery would grow rusty 
with disuse? There are such schools, as I know 
from my own observation, for I have taught in 
them. They are schools, usually at least, in which 
good standards of scholarship are enforced, and 
such sporadic infractions of school rules or the 
moral law as occur are dealt with firmly. For the 
child is loyal only where he respects; and he feels 
no respect for those whom he suspects of toadying 
or any other form of weakness. Tact, sympathy, 
and interest on the part of the teachers have caused 
a feeling of good fellowship to pervade the school. 
Under such circumstances verbal explanation is all 
that is needed to make the pupil see the relation be- 



66 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

tween school law and the purposes of the school; 
and he is easily led to the discovery that the teacher 
and principal obey law as loyally as does any one 
else. The craving of the pupils to be doing some- 
thing that directly interests them, and for physical 
activity — the source of most of the petty mischief 
in the class room — is satisfied by methods of teach- 
ing which require a sufficient exercise of muscles, 
sense organs, and the powers of thinking. The class 
work contains much that is immediately interesting. 
The relation of the remainder to the permanent in- 
terests of the pupil is made perfectly clear through- 
out. Realizing thus the value of the work to himself 
and his fellows the pupil has ordinarily no serious 
desire to disturb its progress. 

What shall be done in such a situation? I confess 
that in schools of this kind any scheme, certainly any 
elaborate scheme of pupil government, would ap- 
peal to me as an impertinence, or at all events an ex- 
crescence. Not merely would there not be enough 
cases of discipline to be worth spending time on, 
what is far more important, the essential (though 
not the sole) purpose for which these systems are 
established has already been largely accomplished — 
to prepare the future citizen to govern himself. Un- 
doubtedly some good things are lost in this other- 
wise happy condition of affairs. But shall we cause 
our pupils to sin that grace may abound ? 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 67 

The Honor System. — It is by the use of the 
same principles that I should decide the problem of 
the adoption of the honor system in examinations 
and other class-room work. It is certain that cheat- 
ing must not be tolerated in a school, not merely on 
disciplinary but also on moral grounds. The sight 
of virtue suffering and vice triumphant is likely to 
be too much for the morals of some of the pupils. 
It is true such young people do not yet have the root 
of the matter in them. Nevertheless they are not 
necessarily a bad sort, and at the worst they are well 
worth saving. Later in life when their moral muscle 
has grown stronger they may be able to stand up 
under temptation without the expectation of being 
paid for it. In the meantime they are young, and 
heavy burdens must not be placed on shoulders that 
have not yet attained their full growth. 

Cheating, then, must be stopped, at whatever ex- 
penditure of effort, in the moral interest of our pu- 
pils. From what was said in the preceding chapter 
it follows that the poorest way to stop it is by the 
use of fear. Another solution — now quite popular 
among progressive teachers — is equally ineffective 
for developing character. It is so to conduct the 
work of the class that the temptation to cheat is re- 
duced to a minimum, and so to shape the questions 
in examinations that any amount of previously pre- 
pared "cribs" can do no good. This may be (in my 



68 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

opinion, is) an excellent solution from both a peda- 
gogical and a disciplinary point of view. But again 
it leaves untouched the issues of character. You do 
not make people good by carefully shielding them 
from temptation. What we want to produce is not 
mere outer conformity but a moral revulsion against 
dishonesty. 

Some teachers and principals know how to get 
this directly through their own personal influence. 
A lady living near a grammar school in a certain 
city looked out one evening just at dusk to discover 
that all the flowers in her garden had been stolen, 
and to see two boys disappearing over the back fence 
with their booty. She was unable. to identify the 
boys positively, but she "believed" they were mem- 
bers of the neighboring school, and so informed the 
principal. The next morning at assembly the princi- 
pal told the story substantially as I have told it, and 
added that if these boys were present she wished to 
see them in her oflice immediately after the exercise. 
When she went to her oflice the boys were there, al- 
ready penitent and prepared to make full confession. 
A principal or teacher of this kind can get honesty 
in class work from the overwhelming majority of 
his pupils without any machinery whatever. And 
the honest ones will not infrequently look after the 
dishonest. In a high school presided over by a man 
who possessed in a marked degree the art of im- 
pressing his own ideals upon his pupils (a school 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 69 

which had no formal honor system) the members 
of the senior class once united in informing the prin- 
cipal by means of a signed letter that three of their 
classmates had cribbed in an examination held the 
day before, and gave the names of the culprits. 

Such schools doubtless need no honor system. I 
can not but believe, however, that they are relatively 
few in number. Schools at the other end of the 
scale also should never attempt to introduce this 
system — but for a very different reason. There is, 
however, still another kind ; I am sure it is the most 
numerous of the three. In this there is a public 
opinion waiting only to be aroused, a public opinion 
which can be aroused most effectively by a system 
which brings the claims of honesty home to the 
conscience in visible form. Into such schools, at 
least from the eighth grade up, the honor system, in 
one form or another, may well be introduced. It 
will not merely prove effective in solving the prob- 
lem of external honesty, it will bring home to the 
pupils the significance, and therewith the claims, of 
the obligation to honesty. 

If it forms part of a general plan of pupil govern- 
ment the punishment of those who cheat will be 
taken care of by the pupils themselves as a part of 
the machinery of school government. If it does not, 
one of two alternatives may be adopted. Either the 
pupils will agree to deal with such dishonesty as 
occurs, or provided the amount of cheating can be 



70 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

kept down to a very small fraction of the class, and 
provided also that the dishonest pupil becomes an 
object of general disapprobation, the teacher may 
ignore it. Under the second alternative the situation 
must be watched with the greatest care. This is not 
difficult and can be done in several different ways. 
For example, a high-school teacher who has only 
seniors in his classes brings them together once at 
the close of the year, after the final examinations 
have been held and the marks handed in. They 
spend the hour in writing unsigned answers to a . 
number of quCvStions about the course. Among 
other things they inform him about the success of 
the honor system as it has been used not merely in 
examinations but in laboratory and other work, and 
about the advisability of employing it with the next ' 
year's class. The favorable reports he has uniformly 
received he checks up by conversations with gradu- 
ates as he meets them from time to time. 

I believe, then, that the honor system in the prep- 
aration of school work, particularly in examinations, 
can and should be applied in most schools. I believe, 
furthermore, that the right-minded majority will 
under favorable circumstances welcome it. I have 
known it to be adopted spontaneously by a high- 
school class as the result of a discussion of dishon- 
esty in a course in moral instruction, and that when 
the application to school work had not been even 
indirectly referred to. I must add, however, that if 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 71 

the system is formally adopted by class or school the 
grounds upon which the obligation to this particular 
variety of honesty rests should be stated by the 
teacher or principal in rather more definite terms 
than the somewhat vague plea of regard for one's 
honor. For a hint on this subject see Chapter 
XVII, page 294. 

Whatever may be the precise methods employed, 
results in the way of character formation, and in- 
deed in the matter of external obedience to the de- 
mands of honesty also, will depend primarily upon 
the attitude of the principal or teacher toward his 
school or class. Nowhere do the maxims apply more 
completely : *'Call a man a dog and hang him," and 
"Nobleness enkindles nobleness." The teacher that 
is continually exhibiting suspicion of fraud, who is 
always trying to *^get" his pupils, who asks "catch 
questions" in examinations, who tries to be a driver 
rather than a leader, and above all, who fails to 
stand before his pupils the embodiment of all that is 
fair and square, such a teacher is certain to arouse 
antagonisms which have not one but many evil con- 
sequences. Of these not the least serious is the call- 
ing out of the spirit which justifies in its own eyes 
evasion, trickery, and fraud of every sort on the 
ground that it is simply "getting even." One who 
knows educational practise in the United States bet- 
ter perhaps than any one else in the country informs 
me that this is the attitude aroused, to a greater or 



72 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

less degree, by an all too large minority of our 
American teachers. 

Dealing with Serious Offenses under the Sys- 
tem of Self-Government. — In schools which rely 
for discipline entirely upon the moral leadership of 
the principal, such sporadic offenses of a serious na- 
ture as may occur will be dealt with as they arise 
through the instrumentality of the right-minded 
pupils. A very handsome elementary school building 
was opened two or three years ago in a certain city. 
Before it had been occupied a month some pupil had 
very badly defaced a conspicuous portion of the ex- 
terior. The principal, who, by the way, was the 
same woman to whom the flower thieves confessed 
their sins, thereupon put the question to the school 
children at assembly whether they would consider 
themselves justified in "telling on" the perpetrator. 
She gave them a day to think about the matter, re- 
questing them only not to talk with one another about 
the matter (to avoid the "mob spirit"). On the fol- 
lowing morning she called for volunteers to come to 
the platform and state their conclusions. Every one 
was in favor of informing. The information was 
never asked for, but, needless to say, the offense was 
never repeated. In a high school conducted on the 
same principles a series of thefts took place in a locker 
room. There was no permanent school council, but 
the principal appointed a committee of prominent 
boys to take the matter in hand. Within a compar- 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 73 

atively short time they brought the thieves before 
him for sentence, themselves possessed, I am sure, 
with a new sense of the significance of honesty. 

These instances, of course, may fairly be said to 
be incipient forms of pupil government. They 
doubtless are. They are about as far as pupil gov- 
ernment can profitably be carried, I believe, in a 
school that is really permeated through and through 
with the right spirit. 



CHAPTER VII 

MUTUAL AID IN CLASS WORK 

The moral ideal is not satisfied merely with vic- 
tory over the temptation to injure others. It de- 
mands also positive service. 

Moral Training in the Old-Fashioned Home. 
— The oldest seat of training in regard for the com- 
mon good and in mutual service is the home. In the 
old-fashioned home, in particular, there was much 
work to be done, and the children were expected to 
perform their share. There were not merely the 
household chores. The support of the family in the 
shop, at the work bench or loom, or in the field, was 
a common enterprise, where father and sons, and 
often mother and daughters also, lived and labored 
side by side. AVhere the parents were wise and just, 
tactful and yet firm, cheerful and even-tempered, 
active and unselfish, the children's part, like the par- 
ents', was performed conscientiously, without fric- 
tion, and often gladly. In certain respects (not in 
all) such a life has power to develop character which 
is equaled by no other institution of society. But 
may not the school catch something of its spirit, and 
perform some of its functions, thus doing a work 

74 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 75 

of the same kind? Indeed, may it not, as suggested 
in Chapter I, be the instrument best adapted for 
carrying this spirit over into a field far more ex- 
tensive than the home, the field of the world, to 
which, in the end, all morality worthy of the name 
must be applied? The following chapters aim to 
supply some sort of an answer to these questions. 

Methods of Developing the Desire for Active 
Service. — The most important of the methods 
that may be employed in the school for developing 
a spirit of active service may be classified roughly as 
training through mutual aid in class work, through 
the service of the school, through participation in 
the extra-curricular activities connected more or less 
closely with school life, and through the service of 
the community. This chapter deals with the first 
of these methods.* 

Mutual Aid in Class Work: the Underlying 
Principle. — ^The principle at its foundation is a 
simple and obvious one. The pupil is directed or 
given the opportunity to help his fellow pupil with 
his tasks, or unites with his classmates in contrib- 
uting to a common fund of information or to the 
solution of a common problem. Since we tend to 
become interested in those we help, the result may 
be not merely a habit external to character, but the 
development of the desire for service itself. 



* I do not mean to deny that pupil government can train to 
positive service. Its primary object, however, is repressive. 



76 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

Its Employment in Hand Work. — Mutual aid 
as between individuals, and group or class coopera- 
tion are believed by some teachers to have most 
scope in hand work. This is one of the most im- 
portant considerations, for many minds, in favor 
not merely of introducing manual training and do- 
mestic science into the schools, but also for the 
teaching of as many subjects as possible through the 
work of the hands, as arithmetic, geography, history 
and nature study. But mutual aid and group work 
can be employed in class exercises to which hand 
work, in the ordinary sense of that term, is an entire 
stranger; and, as it seems to me, with equally good 
results. 

Its Employment in the Traditional Studies. — 
The ninth-grade class in botany, for instance, has been 
studying in ordinary class-room fashion the meth- 
ods of reproduction in plants, using the nasturtium 
as a basis. After the fundamental principles have 
been discovered in this way, class and teacher go out 
into a field where grow a great variety of weeds, 
with a view to learning how these principles exhibit 
themselves in concrete cases. The first thing they 
come upon is the chicory plant. It happens that the 
teacher knows little more about the flower of this 
plant than do the members of the class. Further- 
more its structure happens to be somewhat complex 
and unusual. Consequently all get to work together 
on the problem. Three of the boys who have some 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 77 

ability but are lacking in self-reliance and the spirit 
of leadership are appointed to help three other boys 
who have not grasped enough of the principles to 
have any idea as to what to look for. It happens as 
a matter of fact in each case that these boys, with the 
classmates who had been directed to help them, work 
out the solution; indeed, one or two of them succeed 
in working it out before the teacher does. After the 
reproductive organs of the chicory plant are under- 
stood by all, the class then examine the dandelion, 
and so on until the excursion is over. Thus teacher 
and pupil form one group working together for a 
common end. 

Pupil teachers and pupil critics can be used under 
certain conditions to develop the spirit of mutual 
helpfulness. Doubtless each teacher has his own 
methods when it comes to details. I shall describe 
what I have seen in operation in the high school 
of the University of Wisconsin. The class is again 
a class in botany. The subject has been presented 
by the text-book and demonstration method ; the bet- 
ter pupils understand it perfectly, but a third of the 
class, as usual, lags behind. Since the teacher's ex- 
planations have, in these cases, not produced the de- 
sired results, she yields the floor to one of the pupils, 
who not infrequently — with her exposition as a 
background — succeeds in bringing light to the dark- 
ened mind. Or half a dozen or more of the most 
capable children will be told off to explain the diffi- 



78 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

culties to individual pupils. Sometimes the failure to 
understand appears through the written reports. 
The pupils mark one another's reports, refer them to 
the teacher for final correction, then point out the 
mistakes and explain the difficulties to those who are 
in need of such help. Or again the class is given a 
problem to work. Let us say that they already 
have the data. The thing to be done now is to apply 
these data to the case in hand. The solution will be 
the result of a cooperative effort. In English and 
other subjects, again, class criticism, as of theme 
work, or indeed of ordinary recitation work, may be 
made a valuable part of the recitation period, if the 
teacher knows how to guide without pulling strings. 
In many subjects the pupils may cooperate most 
profitably in supplementing the materials supplied 
by the text-book. A great deal of valuable material 
is omitted from the ordinary text-book solely be- 
cause the writer was not willing to borrow from his 
predecessors. His book must have an individuality 
of its own, he thinks, or the critics will condemn it. 
And individuality seems to him incompatible with 
absorption of the best ideas of others. So particu- 
larly in history. Certain pupils should be encour- 
aged to compare systematically their own text-book 
with other books in order to give their classmates 
the benefit of the omitted materials, and to call their 
attention to disputed points, which may serve as a 
basis for further investigations. Others again should 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 79 

examine such original sources as are suitable and ac- 
cessible, and bring material into class which will 
render concrete what in the text-book was a mere 
abstraction, will explain what has been left vague 
or unintelligible, will exhibit the underlying forces 
in social or political movements which were merely 
described, and will make the great personalities of 
history living beings of flesh and blood. This sup- 
plementary matter will consist not merely of articles 
or selections from books to be read or summarized, 
but also of maps, diagrams and pictures; if slides 
could be made and a lantern used, so much the bet- 
ter. The more the pupils have to do for themselves 
the greater will be the intellectual profit. The more 
completely the work is voluntary and without extra 
credit the more significant will be the effects upon 
character. There would be some advantages in form- 
ing a club within the class whose members agree to 
undertake some of the varieties of the work here 
suggested. There need be nothing invidious in the 
distinction thus created, for it could always be as- 
sumed that the time of the non-members was fully 
occupied by other matters equally important. 

Cooperation is especially needed in the study of 
civics. Much of what there is to be learned in this 
subject can not be obtained with profit from text- 
books. The workings of political institutions must 
be examined by the laboratory method. On the other 
hand, no one pupil can take the time to make a first- 



80 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

hand investigation of them all, even of those within 
the limits of his own town. Accordingly the work 
must be divided among the members of the class 
and the results presented in the form of reports. If 
the desire is awakened to give one's fellow pupils 
the very best and most complete information, pre- 
sented in the clearest and most compact way, moral 
training of a valuable sort is being conducted. The 
moral results can be obtained in their completeness, 
however, only if there are no marks. This may 
seem to place the scheme outside the range of the 
practicable. But it has never been proved, though 
it is usually assumed, that marks are a necessary or 
desirable element of school life. 

In many cases it is profitable to put the class exer- 
cise for the entire period in charge of a pupil teacher 
elected for that period by the class, the regular 
teacher, of course, reserving to himself the veto 
power, and standing behind the pupil teacher, not in 
such a way as to rob him of all responsibility, but 
in such a way as to keep things from going too far 
in the wrong direction. This tends to have effects 
upon character which are of the same general nature 
as the preceding devices. What, then, are these 
effects ? 

Its Value as Intellectual Discipline. — Before 
attempting to answer this question it must be pre- 
mised that most of the methods described in the pre- 
ceding paragraphs were adopted by the teachers 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 81 

whose work I have studied primarily with a view 
to developing intellectual power, the power to ob- 
serve, to reason, to put the results of one's thinking 
into words, to understand the mind of another. 
They are an attempt to apply the principle which all 
of us know from our own experience but which few 
of us ever think of using, the principle, namely, that 
the most effective way to learn is to teach. And 
they are in this respect of particular value to that 
most neglected portion of the class, the best students. 
These see and get perfectly in ten minutes what their 
classmates get but vaguely and incompletely in forty. 
If the former are to obtain the genuine mental dis- 
cipline to which they are entitled they must be set 
for the rest of the period tasks which on the one 
hand will not get them out of step with the remain- 
der of the class — our present pseudo-democratic 
educational ideals would never hear to such an an- 
archical suggestion — and on the other will require 
the exercise of all their faculties and their best ener- 
gies. From this point of view these devices, in the 
hands of a skilful teacher, seem to me a dis- 
tinct success. Since intellectual and moral excel- 
lences are more nearly related than most people sup- 
pose, they represent also an indirect contribution of 
importance to the cause of moral education. But the 
problem of this book is that of direct effects. And 
precisely at this point we confront claims of alleged 
far-reaching and fundamental changes in character 



82 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

as a result of the use of these methods. We return 
then to our original question: What are the direct 
effects upon character? 

Its Effects upon Character. — ^This depends in 
part upon the personality of the teacher. The meth- 
ods in question may lead, on the one hand, to cheap 
intellectual snobbishness, or in plain English, con- 
ceit, mingled with vanity, a nauseous decoction ; and 
on the other hand to humiliation, discouragement 
and envy. In the hands of the right kind of teacher, 
and otherwise under the most favorable conditions, 
they undoubtedly tend to make the class like one 
great family, where mutual service actually pre- 
vails as it is supposed to prevail between brothers 
and sisters. Each contributes his part, great or 
small, to the common store; the strong give indi- 
vidual help to the weak. The latter learn that there 
can be such a thing as cheerful and disinterested 
service. The former through helping others gain 
at once in intellectual and moral stature. 

The Conditions upon Which These Effects 
Depend. — ^These results, however, follow only^ 
under certain conditions. The giver must believe 
that he is really helping, and the permanent condi- 
tion of this belief is that the recipient feels he is be- 
ing really benefited, and benefited as he would not 
have been but for this particular act of assistance. 
Is the regular teacher not paid by the city to help 
him? Why, then, should a member of the class be 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 83 

drafted off to do the teacher's work? The only ad- 
missible answer is that the pupil teacher is at least 
approximately as good as the paid teacher, at any 
rate as far as this special service is concerned, and 
that he can thereby obtain personal assistance which 
the paid teacher would not have time to give him. 
The difficulty in meeting the first condition is ob- 
vious. How can it be supposed that even the abler 
members of the class can ordinarily equal in effect- 
iveness the professional teacher? And where the 
class work out the solution of the problem in com- 
mon they know that the teacher either has the in- 
formation at the start or would have obtained it had 
he thought it necessary. The process is apt to ap- 
pear to them, therefore, not as one in which they 
are helping one another to learn what otherwise they 
would never know, but rather as what it really is, 
namely a piece of intellectual or moral gymnastics. 
Another difficulty is that the direction and amount 
of help given are determined in the main by the 
teacher. The pupil therefore acts in a sense under 
compulsion. I say "in a sense" because a hearty re- 
sponse and the throwing of one's energies into the 
task can never be the product of force. But in so 
far as the work is done under command it is not 
directly at least an exercise in virtuous action, since 
it is of the essence of virtue that it shall represent a 
real choice. To be sure a certain election is always 
virtually open. "You may help Tommy Stevens with 



84 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

his arithmetic, or you may work some additional 
problems for yourself." The innocent may perhaps 
think that in choosing to help Tommy the boy is giv- 
ing a beautiful exhibition of the spirit of service. 
But those who have been much in schoolrooms will 
think another interpretation the more probable. 

Unsupervised Mutual Aid : the Danger of Pau- 
perizing. — It will doubtless be urged by some 
students of education that this difficulty can be 
met by a system of mutual aid in which any 
pupil can appeal for help to any other pupil at 
any time that he wants to. But this seems to me 
decidedly a leap from the frying pan into the fire. 
It is indeed true that a most effective means of 
moral education would be to place a child in a so- 
ciety in which, while self-help was demanded of him 
up to the limit of his capacities, his fellow pupils 
could be depended upon to come to his assistance 
when it was needed, especially at genuine cost to 
themselves. Of only slightly less value — though by 
no means identical in nature with the preceding — 
would be the formation of the habit of turning to co- 
operation as a means of solving life's problems, and 
of taking one's part as a unit in a cooperative organ- 
ism. But there is a very serious limitation to the use 
of this method, the danger, namely, of giving help at 
such times and in such a manner as to pauperize the 
receiver and undermine his self-reliance. Therefore 
the school must, in both the intellectual and moral 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 85 

interests of the pupils, set somewhat narrow limits 
to mutual aid in the class room. 

The fact of the matter is that pupils can not do a 
very great deal to help one another in the develop- 
ment of their powers or even the acquisition of 
knowledge. For example, cooperative class work 
often takes the form of presenting reports. And the 
accounts of such class-room work which appear in 
the educational journals make very interesting and 
even somewhat impressive reading. The preparation 
of the report may be of very great value to the pupil 
himself. The presentation of the report, however, 
is ordinarily of little value to the rest of the 
class. I speak from experience, having at one time 
used the report method quite extensively in conduct- 
ing my own classes. The subjects were often the 
most concrete portions of descriptive ethics. Yet 
the results, except to the writer, were, according to 
the testimony of my pupils and my own observation, 
so unsatisfactory that I have abandoned it. That 
the method is any better adapted to the less mature 
minds of school children I can not believe. But just 
in so far as it is intellectually unsatisfactory its 
moral value disappears. Moral enthusiasm comes 
from the belief that one is serving the class. As 
soon as this belief melts away, the enthusiasm dis- 
appears. Even if the class does not discover the 
facts, the teacher who has discovered them will not 
care to attempt to develop morality by means of a 



86 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

fraud. There seems then to be a stem law set in 
the way of such deHghtful methods of gaining 
knowledge; ''Erwirb' es nm es zii hesitzen" Earn 
it in order to make it your own. 

What holds of the acquisition of information ap- 
plies largely also to the training of the intellectual 
powers. A suggestion from another often carries 
the pupil over the place where he was "stuck," and 
puts him in a position where he can conquer the next 
difficulty himself. One's powers of thought are 
often stimulated by contact with others who are 
wrestling with the same problem. This is the credit 
side of the transaction. But the fact remains that 
just where the other helped is just where the per- 
son himself stopped, and therefore, as far as that 
particular step is concerned, is where his education 
ceased. For education comes from surmounting 
obstacles, not from having them smoothed out of 
the way by some one else. Collective thinking, too, 
while it has its advantages, has also its serious draw- 
backs. For example, the pupils are much given to 
throwing out crude suggestions without criticism, 
on the principle that if there is anything the matter 
with them "probably" the fact will be discovered by 
some one else. Thus superficiality, the curse of the 
American mind, is in danger of being directly en- 
couraged. The statements made about receiving aid 
from others of course hold also of assistance ob- 
tained from the teacher. But there is an important 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 87 

difference. The teacher is supposed to know when 
to intervene, when, in other words, the difficulty is 
really beyond the power of the pupil to overcome, 
and how to intervene so that the pupil will get him- 
self out of his difficulties. 

Our first criticism of this method is that mutual 
aid must either be directed by the teacher or not. 
If the former, that part of the moral value (which is 
not the whole thing) which comes from the sponta- 
neity of the act disappears. If the matter is left to 
the pupils themselves, I mean of course to any great 
extent, consequences are almost certain to appear 
which seem to me far too serious to be tolerated, the 
development within the class, namely, of a set of 
intellectual paupers. 

The Fundamental Limitation of the Entire 
Method. — But even if the danger of parasitism 
could be eliminated or reduced to a minimum, there 
would remain a further limitation to the usefulness 
of this device as a means of moral education. It 
has its source in the nature of the motives which it 
calls into action. We have seen that there is con- 
stant danger of feeding conceit and vanity. The 
best teachers will know how to meet this danger; 
others will doubtless do a good deal of harm. But 
even if this very real danger is avoided the fact re- 
mains that the aid given in class room or workshop 
usually costs the giver little or nothing. While 
therefore it may cultivate a spirit of courtesy in 



88 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

small things, it has no great tendency to develop 
anything stronger or more important. It is indeed 
true, as we have had more than one occasion to point 
out, that people are apt to become interested in those 
they help. But the amount of such interest tends to 
be a function of the cost of the service. I say tends, 
for there are exceptions and somewhat important 
exceptions. These make it possible to develop some- 
thing more vigorous than ordinary courtesy through 
mutual aid in the class room, make it, indeed, a sig- 
nificant factor in moral education. It should, there- 
fore, find a place in the life of the school, and should 
be used where it is not markedly less effective, in- 
tellectually, than other methods. But I believe, on 
the other hand, that the value attached to this 
method in some quarters is greatly exaggerated, and 
that those who rely upon it as an instrument of char- 
acter development either entirely or chiefly will in 
the end be disappointed. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE SERVICE OF THE SCHOOL 

The limitations set to the usefulness of mutual 
aid in class work disappear to a large extent when 
the service is directed, as it can be, to other ends. 
There are schools in which class-room aid is allowed 
to play but a small role or is even excluded entirely 
as a part of the day's program, which are neverthe- 
less completely dominated by the spirit of the fam- 
ily. The service of schoolmates and of school 
merely takes, in them, a different direction. 

The Opportunities Offered by Hand Work. — 
Manual training and domestic science offer pecul- 
iarly rich opportunities for usefulness. The class 
in domestic science may supply the pupils who re- 
main at noon with nutritious, wholesome, well- 
cooked and inexpensive lunches. This is a service 
of much value, the execution of which involves gen- 
uine responsibility and hard work. In the manual- 
training shops it is not uncommon for the pupils to 
make furniture and other things needed in the 
schoolhouse or on the playground. For example, 
in a Wisconsin village, two or three years ago ; 

89 



90 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

"The boys made dinner-pail shelves, mail boxes, 
screens, a medicine cabinet and a bulletin board. 
This year, the need for a playground outfit being 
felt, the boys volunteered to make a start toward one 
if the school board would furnish the material. An 
allowance of ten dollars was granted, for which 
planks, iron plates, etc., were secured. From this 
material three sixth-grade boys twelve years of age, 
assisted by an eighth-grade boy fourteen years of 
age, developed in less than three weeks (working 
approximately four hours each week) a see-saw ac- 
commodating eight to sixteen children and a whirl- 
swing for forty-six children. Besides this the boys 
made from material contributed a vaulting place and 
a place for bounding boards for basketball. 

"The general results of the work accomplished are 
somewhat surprising. One boy who was passed on 
condition and who was lethargic, now ranks first in 
a class of eleven. In every case the best workers in 
manual training are more interested in general 
work. There is a development in loyalty and inter- 
est toward each other and a marked interest and re- 
sponsibility shown by older pupils."* 

The results would have been still better, I believe, 
if the boys had themselves in some way earned the 
necessary money, whether by individual work or by 
giving a school entertainment. 

In a Boston suburb the high-school boys laid out a 
quite elaborate athletic field the ground for which 
was donated by a public-spirited citizen. It was sit- 

* Educational News Bulletin, issued by the Wisconsin State 
Department of Public Instruction. 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 91 

uated at a considerable distance from the school, 
so that a club house seemed desirable. The same 
philanthropist supplied the funds for an architect 
and for the materials, and the boys built and, aided 
by the girls, furnished the house by the labor of 
their own hands.* In a very different environment 
and under widely different conditions a still finer 
piece of work, as far as its effects upon the character 
of the participants are concerned, was done among 
the colored people in one of the poorest districts of 
Indianapolis. The board of education had acquired 
a tenement house next door to an elementary school 
building in order to clear out its tenants, and as it 
was a dilapidated affair, was proposing to wreck it. 
On the suggestion of the principal of the school rt 
was saved and was transformed by the boys under 
the direction of the manual- training teacher into a 
club house, with gymnasium, shower baths and club 
rooms. The work which they themselves could not 
do, such as the plastering and plumbing, was done 
on their solicitation by the plasterers and plumbers 
living in their vicinity. The money needed was con- 
tributed by the neighbors also. Thus it stands to- 
day a neighborhood institution, uniting pupils and 
neighbors in the bonds of a common interest. f 
Activities of this kind have gone on upon a colossal 

* Proceedings of the National Education Association for 
1912, p. 185. 
t Dewey, Schools of To-morrow, ch. viii. 



92 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

scale at Tuskegee, where, as every one knows, the 
students have built with their own hands all but 
three or four of its hundred or more buildings. This 
hard toil, continued for months, lasting several 
hours a day, carried on for a common cause, can 
not but have strengthened in the more generous 
minds the enthusiasm for the service of their race. 
Unfortunately for the cause of moral progress, 
however, this opportunity for developing character 
is the outcome of an exceptional need coupled with 
exceptional poverty. 

Service through the Work of the Traditional 
Curriculum. — The traditional subjects of the cur- 
riculum, properly managed, offer abundant opportu- 
nities for the children to contribute to one another's 
pleasure and profit. Thus in the grades reading can 
be taught most effectively — effectively from every 
point of view — by allowing the pupils to read or tell 
stories to their classmates, stories, of course, with 
which the latter are not familiar or which, at any 
rate, they really want to hear. The necessary mate- 
rial can be obtained either from home or from the 
town library or preferably the school library. In the 
elementary school of the University of Missouri 
reading is learned in precisely this way. The school 
has a children's library. The first-grade pupils read 
from twelve to thirty books during the year. Sec- 
ond-grade pupils read from twenty-five to fifty 
books. Magazines and newspapers may be used as 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 93 

sources as well as books in so far as material can 
be found which the pupil is interested in giving and 
which he finds his fellow pupils are interested in re- 
ceiving. While the stories are being told expression 
is being cultivated, and the English, including not 
merely pronunciation and grammar, but also mode 
of narration, is being corrected. The best narra- 
tives may sometimes be made the basis of written 
exercises, kept in the class collection of stories, or 
perhaps sent to another grade that the enjoyment 
may be shared. Some contributions may tell the 
children how to do things which they desire to do. 
Thus a seventh-grade boy in one school brought to 
class a description of how to build a bird house. 
This led to a general building of bird houses and a 
consequent growth of interest in birds, which in turn 
had somewhat important effects upon certain pupils. 

Such reading or telling of stories will inevitably 
be followed by a second step, if the teacher is wise 
enough to give the opportunity: the writing of 
stories or poems for the delectation of the class, 
and the dramatization of stories read and the pres- 
entation of the plays before the class. To the prep- 
aration of these plays the pupils will often give much 
time of their own out of school hours, and will 
sometimes exhibit the greatest industry and patience 
to make the presentation a success. 

Writing exercises can at times, at least, be made a 
form of social service as truly as reading. The writ- 



94 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

ing of a story or a play is the best possible training 
in the forming of letters and in spelling. Equally 
so is the writing of a letter in class which describes 
an actual excursion or an actual event in the school 
day, addressed to some friend who is not present, 
or to the members of another class. 
' Care for the Moral Welfare of Fellow Pupils. 
— In certain schools somic specific element of the 
welfare of the pupils has been voluntarily made the 
object of care by a group of the more mature and 
thoughtful boys or girls. Protection of the younger 
boys on the part of the older from profane and in- 
decent language is one illustration. Protection of 
the younger boys from cruelty and oppression on 
the playground or on the streets near the school- 
house is another. In a number of high schools the 
older boys have been dealing with the problem of 
smoking among their schoolmates. In some cases 
pledges have been distributed. Where this has been 
done most wisely the pledge has held only for the 
current school year, and as large a part of the pledg- 
ing as possible has been put into the hands of former 
smokers. 

Often, on a suggestion from the principal, a boy 
of character will gladly exert himself to save a 
weaker schoolmate. Thus a high-school boy was 
caught stealing clothing from the locker room of a 
Young Men's Christian Association building. This 
was by no means his first offense. The secretary of 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 95 

the association brought the culprit to the principal 
and asked for advice. On the principal's urgent 
solicitation the case was dropped except for refusal 
of permission to enter the building again for a speci- 
fied time. Then the principal went to one of the 
leaders of the school, a very fine fellow, and said to 
him : "This boy just hangs upon your every motion, 
and you can lead him in any direction, whether for 
good or evil. You therefore have a real responsibil- 
ity for what becomes of him. Now make a serious 
effort to exert upon him a positive influence for 
good and save him from his worse self." The ap- 
peal was responded to. The thieving boy was saved 
by his schoolmate and is now a respected and pros- 
perous business man. 

The Francis W. Parker School: Hand Work. 
■ — An interesting example of a school which has 
sought to inspire every activity of the child by social 
motives, to create "an atmosphere in which ideals 
of usefulness are taken for granted," is the Francis 
W. Parker School in Chicago. This is a private day 
school, founded to honor the memory and perpetu- 
ate the ideals of Chicago's great educator. It con- 
sists of twelve grades, with classes averaging from 
twenty to twenty-five pupils in number. The work 
in domestic science and manual training naturally 
plays a very important, though by no means leading, 
part in the carrying out of this plan. The cooking 
classes, for example, supply refreshments for the 



96 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

mothers' meetings which are held from time to time, 
cook the luncheon for the "garden party" in the 
spring when the men of the faculty and the boys of 
the high school prepare the school garden for the 
spring planting, and help to celebrate the birthdays 
of the members of the group. It is the custom for 
the eighth grade to give something of permanent 
value to the school. This is always the product of 
some of the shops. One year, under the direction 
of the manual-training department, they built a very 
attractive cottage for the playground, putting into 
the task a large amount of time and thought and 
honest labor. Last year they built a pavilion for the 
kindergarten. 

The seventh-grade hand work for both boys and 
girls is printing. In the printing room are prepared 
the numerous products of the printer's art required 
by the life of the school. A school in which life 
surges through every artery, in class room, labora- 
tory, shop, assembly room, playground, indeed 
wherever its pupils are gathered together and for 
whatever purpose, has an insatiable appetite for 
printed matter. The young printers are thus im- 
portant public functionaries, charged with large 
responsibilities. Their services to the community cul- 
minate in giving to the world the two school publi- 
cations, the Parker Weekly, a newspaper, and the 
Recorder J a literary quarterly. 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 97 

The Museum. — A somewhat unique feature of 
this institution- is the museum. It is largely a collec- 
tion of donations, materials* obtained by the pupils 
themselves, whether on school excursions or on some 
vacation trip. Each article thus speaks of the giver 
and the spirit which prompted the gift, and is ac- 
cordingly more than a mere material object, the ab- 
stract representative of some general type. '*A 
striated boulder collected on an eighth-grade ex- 
cursion bears a vastly greater significance than 
one shipped in from a moraine in Iowa. And 
a vireo's nest collected by Lizette during her 
summer vacation means far more to her fellow 
pupils than the more beautiful nest of a weaver-bird 
from Africa."* A considerable part of its contents 
is a product of class work, as a series of bottled 
samples showing the different stages in the manufac- 
ture of flour. Special exhibitions each week of a 
certain portion of its contents chosen as far as pos- 
sible to show the characteristic features of the sea- 
son, as birds, insects and plants, and placed in a 
conspicuous position in the lower hall, serve to keep 
the museum in the focus of the pupils' attention and 
interpret for them certain aspects, at least, of the 
life of nature going on about them at the time. 
When nature is sleeping the exhibit may represent 
the work in science of a particular class and thus 

♦ Francis W. Parker School Year Book, vol. 4, p. 76. 



98 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

serve to bring it within the range of the interests of 
the school as a whole. 

Written Class Work.— In the class room a 
thoroughgoing attempt is being made to impart 
knowledge and train faculty through activities 
which result in products of actual value to others. 
While there are limits beyond which this procedure 
can not go, the teachers of this school have discov- 
ered that the resolute attempt to introduce social 
motivation even into the formal studies of the ele- 
mentary school curriculum discloses possibilities of 
which most of us have never dreamed; and that the 
employment of such motives not merely serves to 
broaden and enrich character, but contributes most 
effectively to the attainment of the intellectual end 
itself through increased interest. A fruitful field 
for the application of this principle is writing. 

"The difference is world-wide between written 
English developed on the basis of a demand for 
thought communication (a real demand in the 
child's mind) and composition for the sake of train- 
ing the children to avoid mistakes in form. The 
teachers believe that discrimination in the choice of 
words, as to their exact meanings and beauty of 
sound, can be developed through written English 
which is a natural outcome of self -motivated work 
of many kinds. A complete list of school work re- 
quiring expression in this mode would be a large 
one. The Recorder and the Parker Weekly are 
always with us needing stories, poetry, reports, 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 99 

editorials, jokes. Writing plays necessitates vivid 
imagery under the special demands of dramatic co- 
herence. Writing lesson-material* fables, and texts 
for songs for a younger grade, or for a future class 
of the same grade^ enlists very good thinking. Mak- 
ing geography, science, history, civics and domestic 
art books gives a dignified reason for good writing. 
Speeches and poems for May Day pageants. 
Thanksgiving exercises, prologues of plays, require 
the best possible" effort. Reports of addresses heard, 
or of discussions of important grade affairs, or of 
Morning Exercises, serve useful purposes, especially 
as subjects of letters to absent pupils. Many letters 
are exchanged between older children and the pri- 
mary grades, and between teachers and pupils dur- 
ing vacation, or for some special reason during 
school time. Nonsense poems, songs, and speeches 
for parties and 'larks' tax the ingenuity to make a 
perfectly free kind of fun go with good feeling and 
good taste."* 

Dramatic and Musical Work. — Cooperation 
and mutual aid can of course be carried a long way 
in the dramatic and musical work which plays a 
large role in the life of the school. Many of the plays 
which are acted are written for the school by indi- 
vidual pupils or' by a class as a whole., Some of the 
words and music sung are also contributions of the 
pupils, who often rise to the demands of the occa- 
sion in a surprisingly creditable manner. The point 
of view insisted upon in preparation for all dramatic 



* Francis W. Parker School Year Book, vol. 3, p. 23. 



100 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

and musical presentations is the social one : devotion 
and subordination on the part of the .individual that 
the audience may enjoy the best possible sort of an 
entertainment. 



"The motive constantly held before the various 
classes in the regular lessons is a social one. The 
steady concentration of the children through weeks 
of practise upon details of chorus singing, during 
the times when other interests press hard upon them, 
shows a deeper, more effectual motive than that of 
vanity in the success of a school exhibition. (It 
may be remarked here that applause for the chil- 
dren's singing, excepting at school ^recitals,' is 
never permitted. ) Motives other than the social one 
no doubt enter in, but shallow motives do not pro- 
duce the unmistakable quality of genuine expressive- 
ness. The ideas suggested to the classes are such 
as these : 

"The chorus needs high, clear tones ; the sopranos 
must work on that point. It needs good chest-tones ; 
the seventh- and eighth-grade boys must provide a 
pleasing alto part that can be relied upon. The 
tenors, weak as they are, must rise to the needs of 
the chorus, as far as possible. The basses must 
work for a quality and an expressiveness which will 
fit them for singing with the flexible sopranos. The 
fifth- and sixth-grade boys must learn to use their 
voices better, so that they shall not spoil the soprano 
quality. The chorus needs every one's very best, 
and even the little children learn to make an almost 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 101 

perfect attack in helping to sing a few simple songs 
and hymns in morning exercises."* 

"Investigation Lane." — An attractive feature 
of the elementary-school life is represented by "In- 
vestigation Lane." This is a part of the playground, 
fenced off from the rest and exhibiting to the outer 
and unaided eye of an adult the appearance 
of a conglomerate of holes and sheds. The holes 
are, however, in the real world in which the fourth- 
grade child dwells, caves, and the sheds are castles, 
forts or mansions. These were all built by groups 
of children organized in such fashion as seemed 
good to themselves, living together under rules of 
their own fashioning, learning the art of leading 
and following, the meaning of responsibility to the 
whole of which each forms a part, in some cases the 
value of money and how to earn it, discovering by 
experience the satisfaction of working in coopera- 
tion for a common end, the necessity of persever- 
ance, and the joys of success after effort. A super- 
visor of great tact gives suggestions upon request, 
or when they are absolutely necessary, on his own 
initiative, or takes hold of a job himself at critical 
periods. Most of all he gives himself to the chil- 
dren. Thus half at play, half at work, they have 
learned to know what it means to do a good job 
and to do it for pthers as well as self. At least 



* Francis W. Parker School Year Book, vol. 1 (1912), p. 79. 



102 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

one group of quarrelsome and lazy boys has made 
some progress toward the goal of industry and has 
taken long strides in the direction of harmony and 
mutual good will. 

The Morning Exercises. — The work of coop- 
eration and mutual helpfulness culminates in 
the morning exercises. To them are brought 
a large part of the products of the social la- 
bors of the pupils. The exercises are held every 
day in the school year, for the forty-five min- 
utes just preceding the noon recess. They are 
essentially the work of the pupils, their own con- 
tribution to the pleasure and profit of their school- 
mates. The material is usually taken from their 
class work or related fields of activity. No one is 
required to take part. But the desire to participate 
is so wide-spread that the days are filled two months 
in advance, and the question of what to do in case of 
want of volunteers has never had to be faced. The 
performers are usually a group, sometimes children 
from different grades, more frequently the mem- 
bers of one class. The variety of subjects pre- 
sented is surprisingly great. There are, of course, 
the celebrations by the entire school of certain fes- 
tivals, as Thanksgiving and other patriotic holidays. 
Art, music, literature and the drama offer probably 
the principal contributions, the last named consist- 
ing for the most part of legends, stories, poems or 
novels, dramatized by one of the classes. There 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 103 

are also "entertainments" of various kinds, descrip- 
tions of travels, especially of travels during summer 
vacations, presentations of current events and ex- 
ercises representing the school work of some par- 
ticular class, as in history, physics or chemistry.* 

The Value of These Methods. — In appraising 
the value of such methods we must be as careful 
as are the authorities of the Parker School them- 
selves, not to expect from any given one results 
which it is incapable of yielding. There is a tend- 
ency, for example, for required work to be done 
in the spirit of required work — I do not mean un- 
willingly, but as a matter of course because it must 
be done — and this whether it be printing or Latin. 
It is very difficult to interest the high-school pupils, 
especially the boys, in the exhibitions given in the 
morning exercises by the children of the fourth to 
the seventh grades, inclusive. Dramatic and similar 
exhibitions appeal directly to a set of motives which 
may for convenience be called the dramatic impulse, 
and these it is primarily that are strengthened 
through exercise by the presentation of plays. 
When a fond mother talks to you for half an hour 
about the virtues and other excellences of her son, 
she is not developing altruism, nor will any number 
of repetitions of the tale cause her to grow in un-^ 
selfishness. 



*For a classified list of subjects see the Year Book, vol. 2, 
pp. 189-197. 



104 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

On the other hand, there is the tendency which 
has been referred to above and will be referred to 
again, the tendency in virtue of which we become 
directly interested in those we serve. This does 
differentiate to a certain degree printing from 
Latin, while it makes of dramatic and musical ex- 
hibitions a possible field for the cultivation of the 
social spirit. However, if we expect a great deal 
from agencies such as these, we shall ordinarily 
be disappointed, because, roughly speaking, our 
devotion to others grows in proportion to the 
amount of sacrifice of inclination which we make 
for their benefit. In a certain elementary school the 
tactful teacher of manual training induced his 
eighth-grade boys (after some balking on their 
part) to perform the wearying, monotonous task 
of sandpapering a cabinet which they had just been 
making, and to do it cheerfully. He urged that they 
would thereby save the cost of having it done by a 
carpenter from outside, who would have to be paid 
from the departmental appropriation, and the money 
thus saved could be put into much-needed tools for 
their successors — their "younger brothers," as he 
phrased it. There can be no question whatever that 
this sacrifice of inclination on their part built moral 
muscle and social spirit. I do not affirm that noth- 
ing short of this will. But in the discussion of 
school programs of mutual aid it is often forgotten 
that the harvest in the way of strength an4 un^elf- 



p 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 105 

ishness necessarily bears an intimate relationship to 
the kind of seed that is put into the ground. 

The great value of life in an atmosphere like that 
of the Parker School will be found to consist in 
the fact that the pupil has before him constantly a 
living model of a well-ordered community. It is a 
community whose members cooperate freely and 
gladly without any calculation of the exact balance 
between give and take. This model is not merely a 
picture which he looks upon from without, it is 
rather a life which embraces his own, whose nature 
he feels because he is a part of it and it is in a very 
real sense a part of him. A craving for harmony 
of purpose, a desire to live in unity with one's fel- 
lows, to breathe an atmosphere of mutual confidence 
and good will, are the normal outcome of such an 
experience. In the more favorable instances this 
will mean an impression which continues and deter- 
mines ideals and conduct throughout life. 



CHAPTER IX 

MORAL TRAINING THROUGH THE EXTRA-CURRICULAR 
ACTIVITIES OF THE SCHOOL 



The Old-Fashioned Methods of Social Train- 
ing. — A generation ago boys and girls found all 
the social life they wanted in their own homes and 
in the immediate neighborhood. Companions there 
were in plenty, within the family first, and then in 
the neighboring families. As to playgrounds, ex- 
cept in a few cities some one of the group was 
pretty sure to have a good-sized yard; and there 
were almost always empty lots in the vicinity or 
at not too great a distance on the edge of town. At 
the worst there were always automobileless streets. 
To-day, for at least one-third of our population, all 
that has changed. The one child or two children 
in a family system has taken children's companion- 
ship out of the home, and made the neighborhood, 
if not a desert, a semi-arid waste. The only place 
for play is the dining-room of a flat, or the doorway 
of a flat building. 

Even where external conditions are not so bad, 
a change has come over the spirit of the children. 

106 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 107 

The old games and the old scrapes are gone; no 
one over twelve years old seems to care for any 
form of play except dancing, pool, and the kinds 
of athletics that flourish at the universities. This 
means a great loss. It is true we used to ring other 
people's door-bells, and snowball teamsters and make 
ourselves general nuisances. We used to endanger 
our lives by stone fights with the boys of another 
section of town or by games of dare, and do much 
else that savored of the barbarian rather than of the 
mature and demure young gentleman of to-day. 
But we learned much that was invaluable and did 
much good teaching. A club to which I belonged, 
for example, taught one of its members to control 
his temper, or at least the expression of it. We did 
not do it out of altruism; we needed him because he 
was a good baseball player. Besides, we liked him 
when he wasn't "mad." Our course in moral train- 
ing lasted about a year, and from our point of view 
was a distinguished success. 

But even when we« were not giving one another 
moral lessons we were having many experiences 
which were of great value as supplying material for 
growth in character. The facts are, in the main, 
well understood, and I do not mean to waste space 
enumerating them. I want to call attention only 
to one which is sometimes overlooked. Direct re- 
gard for another's interest is tremendously strength- 
ened by our ability to put ourselves in his place; 



108 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

in other words, by sympathy. But sympathy de- 
pends partly at least upon our own experiences. At 
least the vivid recollection of how we felt under 
similar circumstances is a great stimulus. It is 
hard for most of us to sympathize with the blind 
or deaf or aged, or with the soldiers in the trenches 
or in the hospital. Increase of experience, espe- 
cially of experience in social relationships, helps us 
to realize, therefore, how others feel or would feel 
in situations where they have been helped or 
w^ronged by their fellows, opens our eyes in general 
to a realizing sense of what is going on in the con- 
sciousness of others. Breadth of experience, then, 
is the very breath of life to the spirit which leads 
us to obey the Golden Rule. Furthermore, as is 
obvious, membership in a gang, even if the gang de- 
votes more time than it should to stoning workmen 
in a conveniently situated quarry, at least breaks 
down the barriers that separate consciousness from 
consciousness, and makes the boy acquainted at first 
hand with how it feels to be able absolutely to de- 
pend upon the loyalty of others and how it feels to 
know that they can depend equally upon him. 

These Methods May Be Employed in Im- 
proved Form by the School. — The loss of these 
educational advantages must be made up to our chil- 
dren, and as usual the burden falls upon the school. 
It can not be otherwise, because the problem must 
be solved, and there is no other institution that can 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 109 

so effectively solve It for all the children. We must 
do it in self-defense ; else there will be athletic games 
played under conditions that are demoralizing rather 
than helpful, and time worse than wasted in hanging 
around billiard halls ; and in the high schools there 
will be fraternities. 

If the schools attack this problem with intelli- 
gence and determination they can create a system 
which will have most (not all, there is no gain with- 
out loss) of the advantages of the old-time associa- 
tions, and in addition some material ones of its own. 
For the adoption of the extra-curricular activities 
of the pupil by the school makes possible the em- 
ployment of a force for good which we lacked in 
our youthful gambols, the presence of an older per- 
son sharing the activities. With this enter into the 
life of the pupils those great sources of influence 
which we discussed in Chapters II and III. So that 
guidance of extra-curricular school activities is 
something more than a prophylactic against mis- 
chief, against its more demoralizing alternative, the 
listless dawdling away of leisure hours, against 
vice, against the evil communications that corrupt 
good manners. It is something more than this, it 
is one of the most valuable instruments of positive 
moral influence which are at our disposal. 

The Initial Idea Came from Arnold of Rugby. 
— The initial idea came to us from England, where 
it had its source in the mind of Arnold of Rugby, 



110 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

In its essential features, it is found to-day in every 
one of the great English "public schools," that is, 
the endowed boarding-schools for boys, preparatory 
to the universities, and is now being introduced also 
into many of their day schools. Some of the fea- 
tures are not adapted to American traditions or 
even American life, but the fundamental principle 
is of world-wide validity. It is the organization of 
the extra-curricular activities of the pupils upon a 
basis of law, with guidance from members of the 
staff. 

■ In the great majority of American high schools 
its application has proceeded as far as athletics. 
The old days are about gone when some former 
member of the team, who, might have no more mor- 
als than a professional gambler, and who, whether 
well-meaning or otherwise, was too often dominated 
in his policies by the town "sports," was allowed 
to serve as coach and determine the standards of 
a train of immature admirers. Gone largely, also, 
are the days when the principal, or at all events the 
honorable principal, can be so careless of moral is- 
sues as to pick his coach merely on the basis of 
his ability to turn out winning teams. It is univer- 
sally recognized now that the coach has ordinarily 
more power for good and evil than any other mem- 
ber of the staff, sometimes than all the other mem- 
bers of the staff put together, and that preeminent 
among his qualities belong the ability and desire to 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 111 

serve as a moral leader of boys. In consequence of 
these changes, present-day high-school athletics are 
proving — speaking broadly — to be a fruitful field 
for the cultivation of a large number of the funda- 
mental virtues. To-day's problem consists in ap- 
plying the same principle to the other extra-curricu- 
lar activities connected with school life. Not that 
these are the seat of abuses, but that they offer an 
opportunity for molding character, similar in kind 
though doubtless in some respects inferior in degree 
to that afforded by athletics. The desire of the 
young people to do things and their desire to do 
things together must be used to develop ideals and 
habits of doing them properly. 

Application to American Conditions in the 
University of Chicago High School. — Some high 
schools can show a very thoroughgoing organization 
of these activities. No description of the workings 
of the resultant system could be better than that 
written by Mr. F. W. Johnson for the School Re- 
view of December, 1909. As an account of the 
extra-curricular life of the University of Chicago 
High School, of which he is principal, it represents 
the results of his own observations and experiments. 
With his permission I have reprinted so much of 
his article as directly concerns our present subject.* 



* I have omitted his account of the two club houses, one 
for boys and one for girls, as something entirely too elab- 
orate and expensive for the overwhelming majority of schools. 



112 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

"The University High School, Chicago, is a day 
school of six hundred pupils, of whom about two- 
thirds are boys. The school aims to provide for all 
the proper social activities of its pupils. These activ- 
ities are in charge of four committees of the faculty 
as follows : Committee on Athletics and Games, 
Committee on Literary Clubs, Committee on Sci- 
ence and Art Clubs, Committee on Student Publica- 
tions. The following rules have been adopted, gov- 
erning all clubs in the school : ( 1 ) All clubs have 
faculty advisers. (2) No club holds its meetings in 
the evening. (3) New clubs to be formed must 
obtain the approval of the appropriate faculty com- 
mittee. (4) All clubs in arranging for the time of 
meeting must consult the appropriate faculty com- 
mittee. (5) The days of meeting of the different 
clubs are : Monday, Music Clubs ; Tuesday, Science 
and Literary Clubs; Wednesday, Arts and Crafts 
Clubs; Thursday, Debating Clubs; Friday, Parties. 
It is apparent that these activities are under careful 
supervision. This, of course, does not mean that 
the teachers exert a repressive influence that robs 
the social life of the pupils of its natural spontane- 
ity. They are rather helpful advisers, sharing with 
the pupils in their enjoyment of their social life. 
The requirement that all meetings of clubs shall be 
in the daytime removes many difficulties that are 
found where pupils gather in the evening. All meet- 
ings are held on the school premises, the usual hour 
being three o^clock, the hour when the session of 
the day ends. The schedule providing for meetings 
of certain groups of clubs on certain days makes 
it possible for a pupil to belong to clubs of various 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 113 

sorts, and thus extend his social activities more 
widely than he otherwise might." 

Athletics. — "Athletics naturally interest the 
greatest number of both boys and girls. For the 
boys, athletics include football, baseball, track, bas- 
ket-ball, swimming, golf, tennis and gymnastics; 
for the girls there are basket-ball, baseball, hockey, 
tennis, golf, swimming, track and gymnastics. 
These sports are in charge of the Department of 
Physical Instruction, which consists of two men and 
two women who devote all their time to the physical 
training of the pupils with such assistants as are nec- 
essary to secure careful supervision of all games. 
There are contests throughout the entire year in 
these various sports, out of doors when the weather 
is suitable and indoors at other times. Most of the 
contests are between different teams of the school. 
For these teams the classes form the basis of 
division, though the number of teams from a 
given class is not confined to one in each sport. 
For example, in the autumn, in football, each class 
has its first and second teams. Definite schedules 
are played by the boys' class teams in football, base- 
ball, track (both indoor and outdoor), basket-ball 
and tennis, and by the girls' teams in basket-ball, 
swimming and tennis. With competition running 
high for places on these different teams and with 
daily practise or games, it will be seen that every 
afternoon throughout the entire year finds a large 
number both of the boys and of the girls engaged 
in competitive games of some sort. During the 
autumn of last year there were eight football teams 
practising and playing regularly. It is possible' in 



114 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

this way to rob of all weight the objection that 
athletics actually furnish physical training only to 
a few pupils and those the ones who least need it. 
While the school does not yet secure, as do the Eng- 
lish public schools, that each pupil who is physically 
able shall compete regularly in some form of athletic 
sport, yet a large part, both boys and girls, actually 
do engage in such sport with regularity under care- 
ful supervision. 

**While in most schools interschool games with 
the preparation of the teams for these contests com- 
prise all the athletic training and are participated in 
by a very small number of pupils, in the University 
High School the interschool games comprise but a 
small part of those actually played. For example, 
last autumn, while there were more than one hun- 
dred boys who played in football games, there were 
only four games played with teams from other 
schools. In some other forms of sport the number 
of interschool games was larger than in football, 
but in all the sports the number of games played be- 
tween teams within the school was much in excess 
of those played with teams from other schools. 

*Tt has been urged that distinct advantage would 
be gained if all interschool athletic games could be 
given up and all contests be confined to teams within 
the school. The high schools of one city have tried 
this plan, and reports indicate that the results have 
been most satisfactory. This is doubtless an effect- 
ive method of getting rid of the serious difficulties 
that have attended interschool games in the past. 
But these difficulties are not without possibility of 
remedy, and giving up interschool contests is a dis- 
tinct loss to a school. Dr. Gulick has shown that 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 115 

while the physical results of iiiterschool athletics 
are inconsiderable, the chief end sought in these con- 
tests is not physical, but social and moral training 
in which the whole school shares. By being loyal to 
his school, whether a member of a team or not, a 
boy is developing *the qualities of loyalty, of social 
morality and of social conscience. These are the es- 
sential elements out of which social loyalty and mor- 
ality may be developed.' With clear vision and firm 
insistence upon high standards of sportsmanlike 
conduct on the part of athletic teams, school officers 
may lay the foundation of traditions for clean and 
gentlemanly sport which every member of the 
school, as well as the members of the team, will take 
pride in maintaining. 

'*Not many years ago the annual football game be- 
tween two schools was attended with a general fight 
between the supporters of the opposing teams in 
which it was necessary for the police to take a hand, 
followed in the darkness of night by defacement of 
the walls of the school buildings by the painting of 
opprobrious epithets. Last autumn on the evening 
before the game between these same schools, the 
members of one team were entertained at dinner by 
the members of the other, and while the game was 
attended by intense enthusiasm on the part of the 
supporters from each school, there were none of the 
unfortunate occurrences of the former year, and the 
two schools actually cheered for each other more 
than once during the game. There is no doubt that 
i^ere was a distinct gain in social morality on the 
part of some two thousand young people which was 
worth much effort to secure and which could not 
have been gained except through the agency of care- 



116 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

fully conducted interschool athletics. In ordec to 
establish the relation of host and guest between the 
opposing teams, in the contract for two games in 
successive years with the only team outside Chicago 
with which our team will play, there is a specific 
agreement that the home team shall entertain their 
visitors socially at dinner on the evening before the 
game. 

"At the close of the season for each sport, school 
emblems are awarded to members of the teams 
which have represented the school, and to the class 
teams the privilege of wearing the class numeral 
is given. These are voted by the faculty committee 
on athletics on the recommendation of the member 
of the Department of Physical Training in charge 
of the team and the captain of the team. In award- 
ing these emblems, faithfulness in training and in 
practise and loyalty to the team and school are 
fundamental requirements which are considered in 
addition to ability and performance in the games. 
It has happened that an athlete of exceptional abil- 
ity has failed to receive an emblem because he did 
not meet the high standard set outside that for mere 
ability in the sport. When it is also considered that 
the privilege of representing the school in any form 
depends upon the satisfactory performance of scho- 
lastic work, it will be understood that the school 
emblem is perhaps the most coveted possession one 
may secure. At the last assembly of each quarter 
the successes of the teams are recounted by their 
fellows, and the members are called upon the plat- 
form, where, amid great enthusiasm, they receive 
their emblems. But opportunity is never lost at 
these times to point out the real meaning of the occa- 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 117 

sion and to restate and strengthen the traditions for 
manly sport that are becoming every year more ef- 
fective in the school." 

Other Activities. — "While athletics probably 
engage a larger amount of time and interest than all 
other forms of social life combined, provision is 
made for a great variety of social activity of other 
sorts. Debating is carried on in class clubs which 
meet at regular intervals and in the Clay Club, an 
organization which dates from the first year of the 
school. Debates are held each year with other 
schools, for which the debaters are selected by com- 
petition open to the entire school. After the con- 
tests the sting of defeat as well as the elation of 
victory is tempered by bringing the representatives 
of the two schools together socially on the basis of 
guest and host. The Engineering Club holds regu- 
lar meetings throughout the year, at which reports 
are made and papers read both by members of the 
club and by others. The Camera and Sketch clubs 
interest many, and make creditable exhibits of their 
work at the end of the year which attract the atten- 
tion not only of members of the school, but of many 
visitors. The Dramatic Club supplements regular 
work given to an elective class in connection with 
the English Department. Perhaps the most credit- 
able public performance connected with all the social 
work of the school has been the annual dramatic 
entertainment, which attracts a large and apprecia- 
tive audience. Two short plays, of high literary and 
artistic merit, are presented, the object being to pro- 
vide opportunity for as large a number as possible 
to share the benefits resulting from this training. 
Competent judges select the participants in trials 



118 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

open to all pupils of the school. There are various 
musical clubs, both vocal and instrumental, which 
meet regularly and furnish music for the school as- 
semblies and various public occasions. Modern 
language clubs make agreeable social adjuncts to the 
class-room work in these departments." 

The Class as a Social Unit. — "Reference has 
been made to the classes as forming natural group 
divisions in athletics. These are also used for de- 
bating, music, class parties, etc. Class meetings give 
excellent opportunities for gaining knowledge and 
practise in parliamentary usage. Class elections are 
always held by ballot in the school office. Nom- 
inations are made by a committee elected by the 
class, and additional nominations may be made by 
petition signed by ten members of the class. In 
practise this method of nomination is always em- 
ployed.'' 

Student Publications.-— "There are three stu- 
dent publications — a daily newspaper, a monthly de- 
voted to literary work, and an annual of the usual 
sort. Each of these is under the careful supervision 
of a teacher. The daily is a four-page sheet which 
covers in a thorough manner the daily happenings of 
the school and also serves as a bulletin for an- 
nouncements to pupils and faculty. A separate 
group of editors has charge of each day's issue dur- 
ing the week, thus distributing the work so that it is 
not excessive. The material used in the monthly is 
selected from the regular theme work of the class." 

The Students' Council. — "The Students' Coun- 
cil is an organization consisting of fifteen members, 
comprising the presidents of each of the four classes 
and four members of the senior class, three members 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 119 

of the junior class, and two members each from the 
sophomore and freshman classes. It is thus a repre- 
sentative group of the entire school. Regular meet- 
ings are' held at which matters of general interest to 
the school are discussed. Recommendations from 
the students to the faculty are made through the 
medium of the council. Measures under considera- 
tion by the faculty are sometimes referred to the 
council and their opinion sought. Aside from these 
deliberative functions, the council nominates the 
candidates for managers of the various athletic 
teams before their election by the faculty committee 
on athletics and games." 

The Honor Societies.~''A group of 'honor so- 
cieties' presents what is, perhaps, a unique feature 
in the high school. One of these, open both to boys 
and girls, is based on scholarship. Its object, as 
stated, is to maintain the standard of scholarship 
and to promote good fellowship among the members 
of the school. Election to this is confined to mem- 
bers of the senior class who have been members of 
the school not less than two years, who have main- 
tained a certain high record of scholarship, and who 
are of good moral character. All who have satis- 
fied these conditions are elected to membership on 
approval of the deans. Membership in this society 
is a highly coveted honor. Two other societies, one 
each for boys and girls, are composed of members of 
the senior class selected because of distinguished 
service in promoting the social, as contrasted with 
the scholastic, life of the school. The membership 
of the boys' society is limited to fifteen, and of the 
girls' society to ten. For purpose of election to 
these societies, the more important of the offices in 



120 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

connection with the various social organizations are 
divided into two classes, major and minor. Those 
holding major offices become ex officio members. 
Of those holding minor offices, enough are selected 
by the senior class to fill the membership of the boys' 
society to fifteen, and of the girls' to ten. In these 
elections, which are held by ballot in the school of- 
fices, boys vote for boys, and girls for girls. All can- 
didates for these societies, both ex officio and by 
election, must be approved by vote of the faculty. 
That it may not appear that too great a premium is 
placed on the holding of office, it should be stated 
that no one of these offices, either major or minor, 
can be held by one who has failed in any study dur- 
ing the previous quarter or whose work in any study 
is unsatisfactory at the time of election. That mem- 
bership in these societies is the most highly coveted 
honor in the school will be easily appreciated. It is 
interesting to note that there are several instances 
each year in which the same pupil is a member of 
the honor society based on scholarship and of that 
based on social prominence." 

The Assembly. — ''The general school assem- 
bly plays an important part in the social life of the 
school. This occurs on Monday morning and occu- 
pies a full hour. It is introduced by a brief formal 
religious service. The remainder of the hour is 
used in various ways to serve the interests of the 
school. All announcements regarding the different 
clubs and other student organizations are made by 
the student officers, who always speak from the plat- 
form. A sense of responsibility is thus encouraged 
in the officers, and, besides, there is no small value 
in this practise in extemporaneous speaking before 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 121 

a large and critical audience. School activities not 
easily under observation are made the subjects of 
special programs. An example of this sort is the 
school daily, to which an entire program was given, 
embodying a description by several members of the 
staff of the process of bringing out a single issue. 
The awarding of emblems to the athletic teams at 
the close of each quarter has already been described. 
Frequent musical programs are furnished by mem- 
bers of the faculty and pupils. There are lectures 
and addresses on appropriate subjects from time to 
time, and of course there are certain vital topics 
which need to be presented by the officers of the 
school. In general it is the purpose to make the as- 
sembly an occasion in which the whole school gath- 
ers to consider together, in as informal a manner 
as possible, the things which are vitally interesting 
to the school." . . . 

School Parties.— "Up to this point no direct 
reference has been made to that side of the social 
life growing out of the association of boys and girls 
in the same school. Of course, these relations have 
been implied in connection with the class organiza- 
tions and the various dramatic, musical, literary and 
art clubs, in which the boys and girls mingle freely. 
It is, however, in connection with the parties that 
the boys and girls come together for the sole pur- 
pose of enjoying one another's society. On each 
Friday afternoon during the autumn and winter 
quarters, there is a dancing party in the gymnasium 
from three to four-thirty. This is in charge of the 
teacher who gives the regular class instruction in 
gymnastic dancing; there are also other teachers 
present and always a considerable number of par- 



122 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

ents. The party is open to all members of the 
school, but to no one else. No one is allowed to 
enter after the party opens nor leave until its close, 
and all who are present participate. The dancing 
takes the form of a cotillion, in which the figures 
are so devised as to secure a frequent and general 
mixing of the participants. The party closes for- 
mally, the parents and teachers standing in line to 
receive the good nights of the pupils as they pass 
out. These parties are largely attended, are evidently 
greatly enjoyed, and are marked by naturalness in 
the relations of the boys and girls toward each 
other. The period since these parties have been held 
has witnessed a constant diminution in the silliness 
which is supposed to accompany the relations of 
boys and girls at this age, and a corresponding in- 
crease in natural and unaffected conduct in the pres- 
ence of each other. At the end of the autumn and 
winter quarters, two of these parties are made spe- 
cial occasions, one for the two lower and the other 
for the two upper classes. At these the Parents' As- 
sociation provides favors, refreshments and special 
music. Again, toward the close of the year, another 
party is given to the whole school under the same 
auspices, which is the only school party for the year 
held in the evening." 

The Solution of the Fraternity Problem.— One 

of the incidental advantages of a system such as is 
here described is that it solves to the satisfaction of 
all concerned the vexatious problem of fraternities. 
This is the testimony not merely of Mr. Johnson, 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 123 

but as far as I am aware, of all those principals who 
have adopted substantially these same methods. 

The Conditions of Success.— It will be seen 
that the leaven which leavens the lump in such a 
school as the University High School is the influ- 
ence of the teacher. The mere exercise on the part 
of the pupils of the impulse to get together and do 
things may result in more harm than good, as is 
shown by the history of many boys' gangs and high- 
school fraternities. But the guidance of activity 
by the teacher, indeed his mere presence in the midst 
of the activities as one ready to help in the attain- 
ment of ends wherever possible — this provides a 
channel through which the influences that may flow 
from his personality will reach the pupil. If he pos- 
sesses tact, strength, and high standards, the more 
impressionable members of his group will in time 
absorb his views on specific moral problems and 
something of his attitude toward life, and in many 
instances will adopt his standards of judgment and 
action. If this is supplemented by a system in which 
the leaders come into regular contact with the prin- 
cipal or vice-principal, as in the Central High School 
of Grand Rapids, Michigan (described in Chap- 
ter IV), still more notable effects upon character 
will unquestionably be obtained. 



CHAPTER X 

DIRECT TRAINING IN CITIZENSHIP 

The last type of moral training- which we shall 
study is that pf preparing for citizenship or for the 
service of the community as a whole through work 
for its benefit. During recent years this has taken 
a considerable number of forms. 

Work for the Poor. — The most common of 
these is work for the poor. This may at first sight 
appear easy, but as a matter of fact it is an exceed- 
ingly difficult thing to manage properly. More harm 
than good will be done if the girls learn to play My 
Lady Bountiful or get to regard it as great sport to 
go "slumming." On the other hand, more than one 
girl who has always lived in comfort or luxury has 
been awakened to a new view of life when she has 
gone as the companion of a school nurse or a tactful 
and strong Charity Organization Society visitor into 
the homes of the self-respecting poor. Under ordi- 
nary circumstances local charitable work should be 
undertaken by a club or a class only through an ar- 
rangement between the local charitable organiza- 
tions and the principal or the teacher. Where the 

124 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 125 

gifts consist of money the pupils should be urged 
to earn it themselves. Under such limitations a 
certain amount of this work may be attempted with 
benefit alike to the poor and the children. What 
appears to be an attractive form of service is that 
undertaken by the Social Workers' Club of the 
William Penn High School for Girls in Philadel- 
phia. "Little groups of girls go each week with the 
teacher to certain hospitals, homes for the aged, or- 
phanages and settlement houses to do what they can. 
Several of the girls have little sewing classes among 
the children, classes in basket work, etc. They teach 
the children to play games, they write letters for the 
old folks or sing for them.''* 

On the whole, the kind of benefaction best 
adapted to school children, especially in the grades, 
is the distribution of food and clothing at Thanks- 
giving, and of presents of whatever sort, especially 
toys, at Christmas. The boy who brings nothing 
more than a potato to the Thanksgiving collection 
may be precisely the one who brings the giver with 
his gift. The best account of how to conduct this 
form of work with which I am acquainted is that to 
be found in the Parker School Year Book, Vol. I, 
pp. 15-32. The appeal to the children of the Parker 
School at Christmas to bring not merely broken toys 
(to be mended in the manual-training shops), but 
also some one toy which is really valued, is a rec- 

* The Independent, vol. 82, p. 283 (1915). 



126 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

ognition of the principle upon which I have more 
than once insisted, that the spirit of service tends to 
grow in proportion to the extent to which it is exer- 
cised through sacrifice made in behalf of those who 
are served. 

Schoolboys as Policemen and Municipal 
Workers. — In a number of cities the experi- 
ment has been tried of giving certain schoolboys, as 
members of civics clubs in the high schools, a limited 
police authority. They may be assigned, for ex- 
ample, to warning the careless against scattering 
waste and rubbish, under penalty of arrest by the 
park policeman. They may cooperate in maintain- 
ing order and, indeed, in assisting in other ways in 
the public playgrounds.* Again, boys and girls in 
both elementary and high schools have taken lead- 
ing parts in cleaning up their city. For example, 
the city may be divided into districts. Each child 
makes a survey of one district and reports condi- 
tions to the appropriate authority and to the prop- 
erty owner. The owners are then requested by the 
children or required by the authorities — as the case 
may be — to clean up their premises, the children 
supervising or perhaps assisting in the work. In 
some towns the work of clearing out mosquitoes has 
been put into the hands of the older schoolboys. 



* Cf. Commissioner Woods' plan for utilizing the boys of 
New York City to help the police, as described, for example, 
in the Outlook, July 12, 1916. 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 127 

The Work of the Two Rivers (Wisconsin) 
High School. — But activities of these kinds, 
however useful, are surface matters in comparison 
with what is being attempted in a few schools. I 
can best show what practically untapped possibilities 
of training for citizenship exist in this field by de- 
scribing the work which has been carried on for a 
number of years in a Wisconsin town, under the 
leadership of the superintendent of schools and prin- 
cipal of the high school, Mr. W. J. Hamilton. Much 
has undoubtedly been accomplished in Two Rivers 
that could not be exactly duplicated in different sur- 
roundings. Yet the essential principles of the 
method and the extent of the possibilities open to it 
appear in the following narrative in complete inde- 
pendence, I believe, of the accidental conditions 
under which they were worked out. 

Two Rivers, it should be premised, is a manu- 
facturing city situated on the west shore of Lake 
Michigan. It has a population of about six thousand, 
almost all of which is composed of people of foreign 
extraction. The high-school building which supplies 
the necessary chairs, tables and roof for almost all 
the social work done by both children and adults is 
fortunately very well adapted to serve this purpose. 
It is situated in the geographical center of the town, 
on the street-car line, has several rooms suitable for 
use as club rooms, and contains an auditorium capa- 
ble of seating twelve hundred persons. 



128 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

The First Step. — Soon after Mr. Hamilton 
went to Two Rivers, some ten years ago, he intro- 
duced into the high school a course in contemporary 
social movements similar to that described in Chap- 
ter XV. The class worked with interest on the 
problems for a number of months, and then certain 
of its members raised the question: Isn't there 
something that we could do, too ? There was in fact 
something which lay very near at hand. For the 
town owned a cemetery which was a disgrace to the 
community. It was a semi-public institution gov- 
erned by a board appointed by the council, and its 
care was a charge upon the taxpayers. Here was 
the opportunity. The young men who availed them- 
selves of it were the members of a moribund debat- 
ing society which had long been discussing with 
languid interest subjects which were or seemed to 
be far removed from their own life. To the ques- 
tion: *'What can we do for Two Rivers?" the boys 
answered — naturally upon the suggestion of the 
principal: "We can reform the cemetery." The 
movement which followed was piloted with great 
skill. The members of the club debated the revolu- 
tionary proposal in all its aspects. The pupils in 
the seventh and eighth grades and in the high-school 
English classes wrote essays on the subject, always 
after having discussed it, by direction of the teacher, 
at home with their parents. The best essays were 
published in the Ipcal newspaper, The editor, de* 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 129 

lighted to have a brand-new subject for his editorial 
page, did valiant work himself. Then at the proper 
moment the society engaged a cemetery expert to 
come to the city and give a lecture in the high-school 
auditorium. The boys raised the money to defray 
his expenses by asking contributions from the busi- 
ness men. They solved the next and probably most 
difficult problem, that of getting out an audience for 
this somewhat forbidding theme, by the very simple 
expedient of printing tickets of admission and dis- 
tributing them (gratis, of course) through the shops 
and factories of the town. As a result of this plan 
the inhabitants were there in force. Among the 
number were the members of the city council and of 
the cemetery board. The expert who had spent two 
days looking over the situation showed the people 
what could be done with their cemetery, and by 
means of lantern slides what had been accomplished 
in other cities. Public opinion was now thoroughly 
aroused. When that is said the rest of the details 
are unimportant for our purpose. One result was 
the very attractive cemetery which the city possesses 
to-day. Another and far more valuable one was a 
body of young men seeking for more worlds to 
conquer, and the metamorphosis of a flaccid debat- 
ing society into a Young Men's Civic Club which in 
time was to enroll practically every male pupil of the 
school. 



130 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

The Establishment of Public Bath-Houses. — 
For the next move the city owes a debt of gratitude 
to its council. Two Rivers possesses two bands of 
water locally known as rivers. In these the boys of 
the town had been wont to swim from a time to 
which man's memory runneth not to the contrary. 
One evening the council voted to prohibit all swim- 
ming within the city limits. Thus did opportunity 
number two knock upon the door of the Two Rivers 
High School. Its call was not unheeded. When the 
boys protested to the superintendent against this 
interference with their ancient and well established 
liberties, he disclosed the fact — which had appar- 
ently been forgotten by every one else — that the city 
owned a tract of ten or twelve acres on the lake 
shore, a tract including a beautiful stretch of sandy 
beach. What more simple than to suggest the build- 
ing of bath-houses on this shore, and to set the boys 
to work again on the project? There was no diffi- 
culty about the boys — but would the citizens pay for 
bath-houses? This was long a serious problem. 
More debates were held. More essays were written 
in English classes, much stirring up of the public 
mind by various means was engaged in, until finally 
the day, or rather the evening, arrived. At a mass 
meeting called in the auditoriimi of the high school 
stirring speeches were made in favor of the pro- 
posal, and then and there a sufficient number of 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 131 

council members pledged themselves to vote for the 
measure to insure its passage. 

The Creation of a City Park. — This was not 
the end, however, of plans for the utilization of the 
bathing beach. Two or three years later, after other 
improvements had been carried through, the sugges- 
tion arose : Why not beautify the lake front by mak- 
ing a park of it ? This proposal was not so simple as 
it might seem. In the first place, could grass and 
trees be made to grow in a spot so barren and wind- 
swept? Secondly — a far more serious considera- 
tion — who would ever go to look at the trees, the 
grass and the lake? Again there was agitation of 
tongues in the debating society and of pens in the 
English classes, activities of all sorts set in motion 
by the Young Men's Civic Club, and finally at the 
right time another mass meeting. To-day Two 
Rivers has a beautiful little park on the shores of 
the great lake, extending back to the railroad station 
and forming an entrance to the town at once attrac- 
tive and dignified. To the surprise of the citizens 
themselves, so many of the inhabitants have gone to 
sit on the park benches that now another section of 
this little city is demanding a park of its own. 

Other Forms of Civic Improvement. — These 
three incidents contain the essence of the entire 
movement for civic betterment in Two Rivers, a 
movement which is gathering more and more mo- 



132 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

mentum with each passing year. One of its earliest 
forms was the beautifying of the homes by painting 
the houses and planting trees, shrubs and flowers. 
The impetus was given by a series of annual clean- 
up days. The improvement of lawns and gardens 
was secured by distributing seeds among the school 
children for home gardens, and by holding a garden 
exhibit each autumn at which prizes are given for 
the best displays of flowers and the best results in 
improving the home grounds. Interest in clean and 
neat-looking houses is aroused by the study (in con- 
nection with clean-up day) of color schemes in the 
drawing classes from the fifth through the eighth 
grade. The children were given color cards, paint- 
ing specifications, and other information to take 
home, the material being supplied by the National 
White Lead Company of Chicago. 

This new attractiveness of houses and yards 
naturally led before long to an agitation on the part 
of the Civic League, the newspapers, and public- 
spirited citizens for the improvement of the streets. 
Here is a city whose site only a comparatively few 
years ago was a waste of sand. To-day practically 
every one of its streets is well paved, is supplied with 
a cement gutter and curb, and is beautified by a 
boulevard planted at regular intervals with elms or 
certain other trees specified by the council under 
expert advice. 

Other results in the way of community betterment 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 133 

having their source among the high-school pupils are 
the anti-tuberculosis movement, the employment of 
a municipal nurse, city garbage collection under the 
charge of the health department, and municipal milk 
inspection, all tests being made in the high-school 
chemical laboratory. At present the Civic League is 
carrying on a campaign for the establishment of 
municipal playgrounds, with immediate success as- 
sured. 

Another recent achievement is the establishment 
and maintenance of "Community Night." One 
evening a week through the winter, from 7:15 to 
9:15 o'clock, the high-school auditorium is open 
to the citizens. The first hour is spent in chorus 
singing under the direction of the supervisor of 
music in the city schools. The second half of the 
evening is occupied by entertainments of many 
kinds, for which the Civic League makes itself re- 
sponsible. There are illustrated lectures, debates, 
plays and moving-picture shows, many of the reels 
being supplied by the Extension Division of the 
University. Of course there is neither admission 
fee nor collection. The attendance averages about 
one hundred and fifty. 

The results here described were of course not ob- 
tained upon the first attempt. As a matter of fact, 
success often came only after a year or more of 
pretty continuous agitation. The town has been 
fortunate in having city officials who were always 



134 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

open to suggestions which they were sure repre- 
sented the sense of the community. It has also been 
fortunate in possessing a body of progressive and 
able business men who take an active interest in 
civic affairs. Without these favoring conditions 
a rough road would undoubtedly have been far 
rougher. 

The Constructive Character of This Work. — 
It will be observed that at every step this work was 
primarily constructive rather than critical. The pu- 
pils were not sent out to gather photographic evi- 
dence of the incompetence or laziness of officials, to 
lodge formal complaints against them, to distribute 
petitions intended to goad them into a performance 
of their duties. Such criticism as was implicitly 
involved in the activities undertaken was directed 
to the community as a whole. The cooperation of 
the city government was sought ; when obtained, the 
momentum acquired by the movement necessarily 
led to progress in many uncontemplated lines, in- 
cluding increased interest and faithfulness to duty 
and enlarged vision on the part of city officials. 
Thus the danger of developing in the young people 
bumptiousness, the spirit of faultfinding and suspi- 
cion was avoided, while the city officials and citizens 
were won over to the ideals of the youthful reform- 
ers by the inherent attractiveness of their plans 
rather than by threats and blows. 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 135 

The High-School Organizations Responsible 
for the Work. — The Young Men's Civic Club, 
the chief factor in bringing about the remarkable 
results just described, now contains about a hundred 
boys, comprising practically all the male enrollment 
of the high school. It continues its debating activi- 
ties as of old, but Hmits the subjects of discussion 
to civic problems — of course in the broad sense of 
the term. It has made some not inconsiderable con- 
tributions to charity. For example, it has raised 
money for the support of the work of the Central 
Howard Association of Chicago, as well as for the 
establishment in Wisconsin of a farm and trade 
school for delinquent boys. But the great part of its 
enthusiasm and energy has gone into its work for 
Two Rivers. 

The girls of the high school, like the boys, have 
their "literary society," which bears the name 
Athena, symbol of ancient ideals. ' Here, too, there 
are meetings with set debates and, in addition, other 
forms of literary exercises. The members have co- 
operated in several civic enterprises, the most recent 
being child welfare week, organized by the women's 
associations of the city. In the main, however, the 
field to which this society has directed its efforts has 
been charity. Acting partly in cooperation with the 
Ladies' Charitable Association (the charity organ- 
ization society of the city), they have provided flow- 



136 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

ers for the sick, clothing for the children of the 
poor, layettes, etc. They, too, have on occasion 
turned their attention to good causes outside of their 
local community, as in raising money to aid 
in the establishment of a home for blind babies 
in New York City. But as with the boys, the chief 
beneficiary has been their own city. 

The women of Two Rivers have a considerable 
number of organizations, each working most effect- 
ively in its own way to make the city a better and 
pleasanter place to live in. Lately they have formed 
themselves into a Federation of Women's Clubs 
with its own central officers. Athena is of course 
one of the affiliates. The way is thus made easy for 
a young woman graduating from the high school to 
continue her civic work in the direction determined 
by her tastes and abilities. By this very simple fol- 
low-up system the spirit aroused in high-school 
years is conserved and guided into definite and per- 
manent channels of usefulness. Unfortunately there 
exist at present no similar means of holding, devel- 
oping and directing the civic loyalty of the young 
men. 

The Results, Material and Moral. — The tangi- 
ble results of all this work are that Two Rivers is 
to-day an attractive city in appearance, whereas 
formerly it must have been a decidedly forbidding 
one; that it has one of the most beautiful little parks 
in the United States; that all its citizens are effect- 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 137 

ively protected against typhoid fever ; that the poor 
and the sick are cared for as never before, and the 
more ignorant among the factory workers are 
taught or shown some of the fundamentals of civil- 
ized living ; that the town has musical and other cul- 
tural interests and opportunities such as it had never 
before known. These and much else are the tangible 
results. But what shall be said of the intangible? 
For some seven or eight 3^ears the pupils of the 
schools, especially of the high school, have been de- 
voting a not inconsiderable part of their leisure to 
the betterment of their city, to the relief of distress, 
to the support, whether financial or otherwise, of 
good movements either in the city, the state or the 
nation. They have grown up in an atmosphere cre- 
ated by the fact that everybody of their own age 
and those just older than they were doing the same 
thing. That high-school boys and girls could ever 
live in any other way has probably never occurred 
to them. In many cases on graduation they have 
transferred their membership to adult associations 
engaged in the same kind of activities as those of 
their high-school society, or at least activities in- 
spired by the same spirit. This makes not merely for 
municipal and national patriotism. It makes, or at 
least tends to make, for trustworthiness and good 
will as between man and man, and indeed all the 
feelings which knit men together and give them a 
sense of solidarity. If this work is continued its 



138 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

cumulative influence upon the life, especially die 
moral life, of that little city will in the end be tre- 
mendous. Of all the agencies for moral training 
thus far described this seems to me by far the most 
effective. 



CHAPTER XI 

THE NATURE AND CONDITIONS OF EFFECTIVE MORAL 

TRAINING 

The preceding review of some of the chief types 
of moral training will have shown that all possess a 
value which makes each an indispensable element in 
any system of moral education that can claim to be 
complete. Extravagant hopes, however, appear to 
be entertained in certain quarters with regard to 
what some of these forms of training can accom- 
plish, and results are at times ascribed to them which 
are in fact due to other agencies. I have accord- 
ingly thought it advisable to examine in a little more 
detail than has yet been possible the exact nature of 
moral training with a view to a more definite deter- 
mination of the nature, the amount and the condi- 
tions of its effectiveness. 

Moral Loyalty Not the Product o£ Fear or Ap- 
probativeness. — According to a common concep- 
tion, moral training consists in putting a boy 
through* a set of activities, using fear or approba- 
tiveness, or motives of that sort, in the hope that 
these activities will become habitual and that he will 
thereupon perform them of himself. The analogy 

139 



140 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

in the mind of most persons, I suppose, is training 
to such semi-automatic performances as the proper 
handhng of knife and fork, erect carriage, or per- 
haps swimming. But as I have already insisted, our 
aim in moral education is to produce, not a series of 
outer actions, but the habit of giving control to cer- 
tain motives which we may call loyalty to the right. 
You can not create or strengthen such loyalty by 
habituating a boy to act from some other motive, 
any more than you can get him into the habit of wip- 
ing his feet when he comes into the house by train- 
ing him to put his food into his mouth with his fork. 
Your appeal to fear can at most (if it has any per- 
manent effect) tend to make him timid under the 
threat of penalty; the appeal to approbativeness, 
hungry for praise. Loyalty to right is indeed, like 
everything else, subject to the law of exercise : That 
which is unexpressed dies; that which is ex- 
pressed grows and becomes strong. But the very 
essence of the process lies in something which 
the boy must himself do and which you can 
not do for him — ^the choice which he makes of the 
right alternative in preference to the wrong. Since 
you can never compel him to do this, as you can, in 
a way, compel him to throw his shoulders back, the 
training of the will to do right by anybody but the 
person himself may be said to be, in a certain sense, 
an impossibility. There is, at bottom, no form of 
moral discipHne but self -discipline. 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 141 

Methods of Moral Training: (1) Leading the 
Horse to Water. — Does moral training, then, ac- 
complish nothing? This is not my conclusion. For 
one thing, much of what is commonly called moral 
training is in reality the use of another agency. Of 
this I shall speak later. But apart from this fact 
moral training, in the proper sense of the term, 
may produce results in four quite different ways. 
In the first place, we may lead the horse to water 
even if we can not make him drink. In other words, 
we can put opportunities in a boy's way. What 
some of these opportunities are was shown in Chap- 
ters V to X. In so far as he accepts them from the 
right motive, his character will be strengthened. 
On the other hand, in so far as he refuses to do so 
he will be the worse for the experience. In so far as 
he performs the outer act from motives less than 
the best his moral growth is not being furthered di- 
rectly. The indirect effects may be good or bad ac- 
cording to circumstances. In general the statement 
is true with regard to this kind of moral training 
which St. Paul made of the preaching of the gospel, 
it is a savor of life unto life or death unto death. 

(2) Developing Interest through Contact. — 
In the second place you can get a boy working for 
a city, or for some person in it, through the appeal 
to his approbativeness, or the desire to do what 
everybody else is doing, or what not. Then with the 
lapse of time, the results produced, if they are beforq 



142 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

his eyes in their concreteness, may awaken a direct 
interest which will lead him to seek them for their 
own sake. Many years ago a young man entered 
settlement work with the intention of making it a 
mere passing incident in his life, and with the pur- 
pose of getting "experience," as he called it, to serve 
as the basis of a literary career. But the cramped 
circumstances and -sad and dreary content of the 
lives of the very poor appealed more and more 
strongly to him with ever-deepening acquaintance. 
With each successive year he found it increasingly 
difficult to turn away, until finally he deliberately 
dedicated himself to their cause. He is to-day one 
of the most devoted and successful workers for the 
poor in the United States. Why, asks Aristotle, do 
parents commonly love their children more than the 
children love their parents ? His answer is, because 
the parents are constantly working for their chil- 
dren. This is nature's reward for service, the en- 
richment of our lives by a new interest, and the in- 
terest is often the consequence rather than the cause 
of the work. 

(3) Curing Thoughtlessness. — In the third 
place much failure to meet the duties of one's station 
in life is due to thoughtlessness. As an illustration 
from school life, take what is constantly happening 
in a manual-training workshop. Here, at least at 
the beginning, the pupils are continually failing to 
return to their proper places -the tools which belong 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 143 

to the class. They clamp two parts of a project to- 
gether, put it into their locker, and go away and 
leave it; whereupon, naturally, the next morning 
the clamps are missing from their place in the shop. 
Or they dull or nick one of the tools, with a result 
that there is a ridge on the board which their neigh- 
bor is planing where there should be a smooth sur- 
face. Or in staining a table they splash the color- 
ing material all over a book-case which some one 
else has just completed, necessitating hours of weary 
sandpapering. These things may be the result either 
of unwillingness to take trouble, that is, of self- 
ishness, or of the fact that they "didn't think." If 
the latter is the chief culprit, continual directions on 
the part of the teacher, together with the reasons 
therefor, may finally produce an association between 
taking things from their place and putting them 
back; and this association may be strengthened by 
unpleasant experiences of neglect to obey the rule on 
the part of other members of the class. It is also 
probable (though by no means certain, since we 
really know little about the subject) that the 
thought fulness created in this field may be trans- 
ferred to other departments of life. 

It must be noted in this connection, however, that 
while thought fulness is partly a mechanical process, 
the product of mere repetition, it is like every other 
associative train largely under the domination of 
interest. Some persons, for example, are always 



144 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

forgetting their engagements, and they lay this misr 
fortune to their "poor memory." But such persons 
would not be likely to forget to attend the reading 
of a will when there was a good chance of their 
receiving a large share of a fortune. Poor memory 
is often nothing but lack of interest. Hence training 
of the kind here described will produce even so ele- 
mentary a thing as thought fulness for others — at 
least in any appreciable amount — only where there 
already exists genuine desire to save others from 
annoyances or disappointments, or loss or suffering. 
(4) Destroying Enemies and Strengthening 
Allies. — Building up habits of action in other 
persons may modify their character in still a fourth 
way. In the conflict within the soul, just as in war, 
victory turns on the relative strength of two factors, 
the attack and the defense. On the one side, in all 
genuinely moral action, is loyalty to the right. On 
the other are such things as laziness, the cravings 
which impel toward vice, dread of pain, fear of loss, 
the attractive power of pleasure, and much else. 
Now what you can do for a boy through the estab- 
lishment of a regime or mode of living for him is 
to increase or lessen the strength of the forces op- 
posed to loyalty. You can kill laziness, and, given 
time and certain native predispositions, replace it 
with a liking for work for its own sake ; you can in- 
crease or diminish the attractions of vice, the force 
of anger, the shrinking from pain, the fascination 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 145 

of pleasure of whatever kind. Accordingly some- 
thing may be gained by demanding hard work, by 
subjecting a child to the hardening process, by pre- 
venting the expression of anger through whatever 
means. Similarly, certain environments with their 
temptations to laziness, vice, etc., develop and 
strengthen the susceptibility to the seductions of 
life so that only the strongest loyalty can prevail 
over them. 

The ordinary person, young or old, is not like a 
Dickens character, a marionette pulled by one string. 
In his best actions there usually enter other ele- 
ments besides loyalty to the right, impelling in the 
same direction. They are its allies, and may per- 
form the important functions of holding off the 
enemy while it gathers strength, and of saving it 
from destruction in the face of what, without them, 
would be overwhelming odds. In so far as we ini- 
tiate a regime or establish modes of activity which 
are favorable to the growth of these feelings and 
interests, we are accordingly at the same time fur- 
thering the development of the moral spirit. 

As one of many possible illustrations, take an im- 
portant by-product of manual training. If one is 
to succeed in the hard struggle of overcoming a 
deep-seated propensity, he must have a certain 
amount of self-confidence. One must have experi- 
enced the glow of success in some field to have the 
courage to fight out the battle where the opposition 



146 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

is long-continued and powerful. The old-fashioned 
school tended to depress the spirits of many of its 
pupils — those, namely, who could not succeed in the 
one narrow line of endeavor then open to them. But 
hand work may operate to give confidence, spirit, 
and a first-hand acquaintanceship with the joys of 
success to those who can do good work only in the 
field of manual dexterity. In fact, this, in my opin- 
ion, is likely to be its most important contribution 
to moral education. 

Importance of Distinguishing between These 
Methods.: — Moral training, then, is a name for a 
large number of processes resting upon very dif- 
ferent psychological foundations. They may look 
alike to the superficial observer, as a college frater- 
nity and a high-school fraternity, or an adult's mind 
and a child's mind may look much alike to one who 
is not a teacher. If the exercise of intelligence is 
more likely to produce results than is "muddling 
through," it will be worth our while to get these dis- 
tinctions clearly before our minds. For guidance 
of action by intelligence means understanding the 
nature of the tools with which you work, in order 
that you may know how and when to employ each 
and precisely what you may expect of it. 

Many Effects Attributed to Training Really 
Due to Contact with Character. — That the four 
sets of results enumerated above are of the highest 
importance and well worth all the time and effort 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER U7, 

they can ever cost, goes without saying. That such 
results will fall far short of the claims made in their 
behalf by many of the enthusiasts for moral train- 
ing, is equally certain. Indeed they fall short of 
what seem to be the effects which observation shows 
to ensue upon their employment. The explanation 
of this situation is a simple one. It turns on the 
fact that what are ordinarily regarded as the fruits 
of moral training are in reality, to a large extent, 
the product of another and quite different agency, 
namely, the direct influence of one living personality 
upon another. When you are engaged in training 
even to outer modes of action and by means of 
the most external motives, as when you punish a 
child for coming into the house without wiping his 
feet, you are placing before him standards of con- 
duct which he indeed will have either to accept or 
reject for himself, but which will be powerfully 
recommended to him, provided he loves you or at 
least respects you, by your manifest approbation, 
and I may add, by your own obedience to them. 
Furthermore, when you seek to train through the 
establishment among your pupils of such systems 
of service as are described in the preceding chapter, 
you, the teacher, must be in constant contact with 
your pupils, and your life must touch theirs at a con- 
siderable number of points. This personal contact 
with an earnest worker in the world's service is per- 
haps the most effective single element in these activ- 



148 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

ities. If so, the greatest factor in the modes of 
moral education we have been studying is the per- 
sonaHty of the teacher, and their most significant 
achievement, the creation and maintenance of chan- 
nels through which the influences normally flowing 
from personality may pass unimpeded to the young 
soul ready to receive them. If any one wishes to 
class this agency as a form of moral training, there 
is no law on the statute books to prevent him from 
doing so. 

The Relative Effectiveness of the Different 
Agencies for Moral Training. — The examination 
just concluded should be of some help in determin- 
ing the relative value of the different forms of 
training described in the preceding chapters. If it 
be asked which is the most effective, the partial an- 
swer is : That which the teacher or principal, be- 
cause of his interests, tastes, or special aptitudes, 
can administer best. But if the question be asked 
in abstraction from this consideration, I reply that 
beginning with the discipline of the school I have 
arranged them in what I regard as, very roughly, 
the order of ascending value. The traditional dis- 
cipline of the school may stiffen the moral backbone 
and harden the moral muscle, particularly where the 
pupil himself is led to see and realize the awful 
penalties laid by nature upon flabbiness of will, the 
beneficence and splendor of moral power. Pupil 
government seems to me in itself considered a dis- 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 149 

tinctly valuable device. But it can find a place, as 
far as I can see, only in a school in which the staff 
have not succeeded by other means in inspiring the 
pupils with the ideal of Individual self-government. 
Mutual aid in the class room In all its forms seems to 
me calculated to cultivate habits of thought fulness 
concerning the interests of others; beyond this it 
appears to be capable at most of developing a will- 
ingness to do inexpensive favors for one's compan- 
ions. The service of the school excels mutual aid 
in class work as an instrumentality of moral train- 
ing chiefly in that it is practically free from the 
limitations and dangers of the latter. But it should 
not be forgotten that both alike hold up before the 
pupil an ideal of life in a harmonious community 
governed by the spirit of cooperation. This ideal 
may so lay hold of the affections of some of the 
pupils that they will later seek to realize it also un- 
der conditions which present greater resistance to 
its rule. The organization of extra-curricular ac- ' 
tivlties as described in Chapter IX seems to me al- , 
most indispensable In the high school under most 
contemporary conditions, if for no other reason than 
its power to thrust out a group of serious and 
threatening evils. It employs, more than all the other 
methods, the personality of the teacher. Hence its 
efficacy depends largely upon the tact, judgment and 
character of those who occupy the position of ad- 
visers. The methods of Chapter X seem to me, as 



150 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

I have already said, intrinsically the most effective. 
The reasons are, first, that the activities in question 
represent work rather than play and accordingly 
offer more abundant and varied opportunities of 
making serious sacrifices of personal inclination in 
behalf of a chosen course than do their rivals. Fur- 
thermore, the results achieved, at least in such towns 
as Two Rivers, are more important than those 
flowing from any of the other modes of activity, and 
are recognized as more important, I believe, by the 
pupils themselves. Finally the momentum acquired 
can be transferred without loss to the civic and per- 
haps other activities of adult life. 

One more word remains to be said to the prin- 
cipal who is considering which of these various 
plans he shall adopt and introduce. We were taught 
in our arithmetic classes that one and one are al- 
ways two. No theory could be more repugnant to 
experience. In the field of moral training — as in 
many other regions of space — one and one are ap- 
proximately four, as far as effects are concerned, 
while one and one and one are at least ten. In other 
words, any one method is good, but two combined 
will give results far exceeding in significance the 
sum of each taken alone. The fight for character 
is a hard one. We should start with whatever 
weapon lies nearest our hands, but we should add 
to our equipment as opportunity permits, in the con- 
fidence bom of the experience of all the great teach- 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 151 

ers that victory is a matter of energy and prepared- 
ness. 

The Necessity of Moral Instruction. — In our 

study of the instrumentahties for awakening and 
strengthening the moral spirit we have given first 
place in order of importance to the personal influ- 
ence of the high-minded teacher. But we have rec- 
ognized that it is subject to a number of serious lim- 
itations. Moral training in its turn, as we have seen, 
also has definite limitations of its own. I believe, 
therefore, that these agencies must be supplemented 
by another if results are to be obtained commensu- 
rate with the needs of the times. This I shall call 
moral instruction, inadequate as is the term instruc- 
tion to express what I have in mind. It will supply 
the subject-matter of the following chapters. 

My conclusions concerning the insufficiency of 
personal influence and moral training are confirmed 
by the attitude of representative Englishmen toward 
the moral situation in the English schools, especially 
the great endowed academies preparatory to the 
universities, which are called public schools. Since 
the time of Arnold a system has been in existence 
whereby the teachers come into somewhat intimate 
personal contact with the pupils. Pupil government 
has been introduced, and the .extra-curricular activi- 
ties have been organized in such a way as to supply 
certain forms of moral training. In other words, 
murh; though not all, of the program here presented 



152 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

has been actually in force there for more than half a 
century, administered by teachers who represent as 
a whole a high average of intelligence and character, 
and who possess the best education that England can 
give. Great results have been obtained. Indeed, 
great results were necessary, for the English "pub- 
lic schools" of the first half of the nineteenth cen- 
tury were, according to the descriptions of those 
who knew them at first hand, hotbeds of vice and 
of many other equally serious forms of moral evil. 
"There are differences of opinion," writes Mr. 
Bompas Smith,* "as to some of the details of the 
system, but it is inconceivable that it should ever 
be abandoned. It has revolutionized the atmosphere 
of the schools in which it has been adopted. At 
the beginning of the nineteenth century complaint 
was often made that the public schools neglected 
the moral side of education, whereas at present they 
are generally regarded as especially successful in 
this department of their work." 

Notwithstanding this testimony, a large number 
of British observers (including Mr. Smith), men 
who have themselves studied at these schools, agree 
in regarding the existing situation as very far from 
satisfactory. After leaving school the boys are apt 
to show a lack of moral self-reliance. Many of 
them have not developed the power or even the de- 



* Sadler, Moral Instruction and Training in the Schools^ 
vol. 1, ch. xii. 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 153 

sire to walk alone ; and this means in too many cases 
not merely lack of moral initiative, but also lack 
of moral purpose. In the second place* all too often, 
with the removal to another environment, whether 
in the vacation or after graduation, even the vir- 
tues which seemed to have become automatic sud- 
denly break down. "I know many a boy who will 
take a bad 'hack' on the shins (is there any pain 
more thrilling?) in a foot-ball match as though for 
him pain did not exist, and yet who would not hesi- 
tate to make his whole family uncomfortable in the 
holidays if he has a headache."'^ It is a more seri- 
ous example of the same principle that (as is on 
every hand asserted) when- the graduate faces new 
sets of responsibilities, as the duties of his vocation 
or those of citizenship, his school life appears to 
have contributed little toward the creation of the 
spirit with which these obligations should be met. 
In the language of the theory of education there 
has been little or no transfer of training. In con- 
sequence of a rather wide-spread recognition of 
these deficiencies English public-school teachers are 
in considerable numbers changing their attitude to- 
ward moral instruction, and while insisting as they 
should that the present system of training be main- 
tained, are also ready to admit that it should be sup- 
plemented by some form of moral instruction. Amer- 
ican schools which rely solely upon moral training 



* Ennis Richmond, Through Boyhood to Manhood, p. 21. 



154 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

will, I believe, ere long find themselves traveling the 
same road. In the very nature of the case, as will 
I hope be made to appear, moral training can reach 
the maximum of effectiveness only as the habits it 
seeks to produce are guided by intelligence and ren- 
dered virile by an affection which is based upon in- 
sight. To clarify conduct by intelligence is precisely 
the function of moral instruction. 



Note. On the methods of moral training employed in the 
English public schools see H. Bompas Smith in Sadler, Moral 
Instruction and Training in Schools, vol. 1, ch. xii ; J. J. Find- 
lay in School Review, vol. 15, pp. 744-753; vol. 16, pp. 601- 
608. On the amount of success attained by these public 
schools in training character see the opinions of the follow- 
ing eminent British authorities : H. Bompas Smith in Sadler, 
as above ; M. E. Sadler, in his Report of the First Interna- 
tional Moral Education Congress, published in International 
Journal of Ethics, vol. 19, pp. 164-8 (1909) ; A. J. Pressland, 
English Public Schools as a Training Ground of Citizenship, 
Educational Review, vol. 40, p. 499 (1910) ; Ennis Richmond, 
in Through Boyhood to Manhood (1900), pp. 13 to 28; H. 
Lionel Rogers in Norwood and Hope, The Higher Education 
of Boys in England (1909), p. 528. 



Part III: Moral Instruction 

CHAPTER XII 

AIMS OF MORAL INSTRUCTION 

Moral training, as we saw in an earlier chapter, 
is definable as the education or nurture of character 
through activity. Moral instruction, in its turn, is 
definable as the nurture of character through the 
agency of ideas. The definition makes the distinc- 
tion between training .and instruction somewhat 
more absolute than it actually is. For the only form 
of activity that has any moral value whatever is 
voluntary action. Instinctive action (in the narrow 
and proper sense of that scandalously misused 
term), i. e., action not determined by thought, as 
winking when some one pokes his finger at your 
eye, starting at a sound, and sneezing, has no moral 
significance whatever. But voluntary action is ac- 
tion- guided by the idea of some end to be attained, 
whether it be of an end so simple as cooling the 
room or so complex as the decision to go to college* 
In moral training, then, ideas play a leading role 
as truly as in moral instruction. Wherein, then, 
lies the difference? The difference is not an ab- 
solute one, but is rather a matter of emphasis. In 
moral instruction the chief purpose is to supply sat- 

155 



156 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

isfactory ideas which may serve to produce action; 
in moral training the chief purpose is to see to it 
that the ideas actually produce the corresponding 
actions. The two modes of moral education are 
therefore merely two different parts of what in es- 
sence is a single process. The statements of Chapter 
XIII will still further obliterate the distinction be- 
tween them. 

We have been able to proceed thus far without 
a systematic view of the ends of moral education. 
We can not deal effectively with moral instruction, 
however, as long as we have no better foundation 
upon which to build than the ordinary vague ideas 
as to what we mean to accomplish. We proceed 
therefore to a survey of the leading aims of moral 
education. 

The Principal Aims of Moral Training and In- 
struction. — The most general aims of moral in- 
struction and of moral training are at bottom iden- 
tical. They are found in the consideration of what 
constitutes a good man or what conditions must be 
fulfilled by a good action. The factors which enter 
into right conduct are three in number. Right do- 
ing involves, in the first place, knowledge of what 
is the right course of action to pursue under the 
given circumstances. If the person is to be de- 
pended upon to do right continuously he must pos- 
sess the power to discover, and not merely this, 
also the habit of attempting to discover what he 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 157 

ought or ought not to do in the various situations 
in which he may find himself. Right doing involves, 
in the second place, the desire to do right — what is 
commonly called the love of the right. Finally it 
involves the existence of an open road between de- 
sire and action. Desire represents a tendency to 
action, but does not insure action. We see this ex- 
emplified in the sentimentalist. He is not a hypo- 
crite, as he is often falsely regarded. He is one 
who really feels strongly the dignity and glory of 
the moral life, and the needs of his fellow men. 
The trouble with him is he does not act in accord- 
ance with his feelings. He may be restrained by 
laziness, cowardice, selfishness or other forces. 
Whatever they are they paralyze the love of the 
right without destroying it. The "open road" re- 
ferred to above means, then, the absence of oppos- 
ing forces, and where needed, the presence of fa- 
voring conditions. Of the latter the most important, 
though by no means the only one, is the existence 
of the corresponding habit. These three factors 
represent the fundamental aims of all moral educa- 
tion. We must seek to develop the power and the 
habit of moral discrimination, to strengthen the love 
of the right, and to maintain and enlarge the open 
road between feeling and action. 

The Need for More Knowledge of What Is 
Right. — The knowledge of what we ought to do 
under given circumstances is, as we have just seen. 



158 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

the first item in a program of moral education. 
Such knowledge has indeed been declared by some 
writers to be useless because it does not "guarantee" 
right conduct. One might as well say that attention 
to the water supply is a waste of time because it 
does not guarantee immunity from typhoid fever. 
The blind are not good marksmen. Accordingly the 
equipment of the young with some knowledge of 
their duties, that is to say, of the ends at which 
they ought to aim in every-day living, must be an 
important part of preparation for life. All pupils 
will of course know without help from their teach- 
ers that murder and theft as such are wrong. But 
there are many forms of murder and theft which are 
by no means invariably recognized when seen. When 
a manufacturer refuses to guard dangerous machin- 
ery, or a railroad refuses to equip its cars with 
automatic couplers until compelled to do so by law, 
on the ground that it is cheaper to pay damages for 
life and limb than to install protective devices ; when 
a manufacturer puts certain adulterants into foods 
or drugs; when a mine or building inspector neg- 
lects to enforce the laws enacted for the safety of 
those he is sworn to protect — each of these parties 
is in essence guilty of murder. When a private cit- 
izen dodges his share of the burden of taxation, 
when a newspaper owner accepts advertisements 
known by him to be fraudulent, he is acting the 
thief. Yet these things apparently are not infre- 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 159 

quently done with a clear conscience. How far 
moral blindness may extend in the most obvious 
matters is sufficiently illustrated by the following 
incident. 

A friend of mine once rode for a couple of hours 
in a train with the representative of a certain firm 
who regaled him with stories of how he obtained 
business. The means principally used were the brib- 
ery both of public officials and of private persons 
who were able to influence public opinion; and the 
gamut of his devices included almost every conceiv- 
able kind of trickery. When they separated this 
apparently conscienceless individual said to my 

friend : "Oh ! is a splendid firm to work for; 

they have always treated me white, and they have 
never asked me to do anything wrong." This man, 
evidently, had his own standards, after all. He was 
simply a moral illiterate. Many of these men can 
be awakened to better things, for just such an awak- 
ening has been taking place on a large scale among 
American business men during the past ten or fif- 
teen years. 

Sometimes the source of trouble is not moral ob- 
tuseness at all, but thoughtlessness. From the life 
of the family to that of the state a large number 
of sins, both of omission and commission, are at- 
tributable to this cause. In a lively book entitled 
'Astir, Mr. J. A. Thayer, at one time owner of 
Everybody's Ma-gazine, tells how he moved Collier's 



160 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

Weekly to drive fraudulent advertisements from its 
columns. As advertising manager, first of the La- 
dies' Home Journal, and then of the Delineator, he 
himself had served as a pioneer in this movement. 
During his connection with the Delineator he wrote, 
under the name of a friend, the following letter to 
Mr. Collier : "I see Collier's every week, and I find 
in it patent medicine and other advertisements which 
the Ladies' Home Journal and the Delineator do not 
insert. Why do you accept such advertising? I 
am sure you do not need the money." In a very 
short time he received the following reply from Mr. 
Robert Collier himself. "Upon receipt of your letter 
I called our advertising staff together and we have 
decided, as soon as certain contracts are completed, 
to discontinue the insertion of such advertising."* 
Needless to say the promise was kept. Not merely 
this, the suggestion thus dropped led to one of the 
most vigorous and thorough campaigns against the 
patent medicine evil ever undertaken in this country. 
The last thing any one would call Mr. Collier is a 
moral illiterate. He was simply a very busy man 
who followed a business custom of his day with- 
out any thought about the moral issues involved. 

Not infrequently even the most intelligent, high- 
minded and thoughtful find themselves perplexed 
by the novelty or complexity of the moral problems 
which face them, whether in their own individual 

* J. A. Thayer, Astir, A Publisher's Life Story, p. 205. 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 161 

life or in their capacity as citizens. Here, for ex- 
ample, are a number of brick makers in a certain 
territory who are facing bankruptcy because it seems 
impossible to eliminate "cut-throat competition." 
Are they justified in forming an association to main- 
tain prices and destroy competition? If this seems 
easy to an arm-chair moralist let him reflect upon 
the fact that able and conscientious men are at odds 
about the permissibility of cut-throat competition 
itself (i. e., selling below cost in order to drive out 
a rival), and those forms of grappling your cus- 
tomer to your soul with hoops of steel that are 
known as factors' agreements.* In the field of 
national life we find thoughtful and patriotic men 
diflfering radically in their attitude toward such 
problems as the regulation of the hours of labor 
and wages by law, compensation for industrial ac- 
cidents, woman's suffrage, and the independence of 
the Philippines, and differing not merely with refer- 
ence to questions of means and machinery, but also 
with regard to the fundamental moral principles in- 
volved. Differences of ethical opinion just as well 
grounded, and — for them — just as vital, appear far 
from infrequently in the individual and community 
lives of schoolboys and schoolgirls. In view of all 
these facts, one fundamental aim of moral instruc- 



* Contrast G. H. Montague in Atlantic Monthly, vol. 95, p. 
414 (1905), with W. S. Stevens in the Political Science Quar- 
terly for June and September, 1914. 



162 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

tion must be to reduce the amount of moral illit- 
eracy, moral thoughtlessness and justifiable moral 
perplexity. 

How to Strengthen the Desire to Do Right. 
— Mere knowledge, however, is not sufficient for the 
production of right action. Knowledge of the right 
is in itself nothing unless beneath it there lies the 
desire to do right, or as it is commonly called, the 
love of the right. This can be developed in pre- 
cisely the same way as the love of literature or art. 
The teacher of English awakens or strengthens the 
love for Shakespeare, for example, not by praise. 
Praise of literature, whether in the abstract or con- 
crete (I speak from experience as a victim), is at 
first (under the most favorable circumstances) 
merely amusing, then boring, finally disgusting. 
Exhortation to love it is useless if you already love, 
and leaves you cold if you do not. The love of 
literature is created by criticism in the proper sense 
of that term, that is, by guiding the student in a 
critical examination which will bring into view the 
excellences of style, of character drawing, or what- 
ever they may be, which would otherwise have es- 
caped the attention of the untrained and perhaps 
hasty reader. Appreciation follows normally upon 
seeing, and can be developed only by training to see. 

It is not otherwise in the field of morals. Most 
of us go through life, except at rare intervals, some- 
what like somnambulists. We are only half awake 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 163 

to what we are really doing. If we but saw, or at 
all events realized, what issues hung upon our con- 
duct, how would the spirit which leaps forth at a 
shipwreck, a fire, or in a battle or similar dramatic 
event, take possession of the will in the ordinary 
affairs of life ! In the great crises, where the stakes 
are life and death, the scales seem to fall from our 
eyes, we see things for the moment as they are, 
and meet at whatever cost the demands of the sit- 
uation. **Spirits are not finely touched but to fine 
issues." To lead our pupils to love the right is to 
train them to see in the often commonplace duties 
of the commonplace day the illimitable issues by 
which they are ennobled. 

Training and Instruction in Acquiring Self- 
Control.- — The man who does his duty is not 
merely one who knows what is right and desires 
to do it ; he is one in whom desire or love has passed 
over into action. This is something which, as was 
pointed out above, does not necessarily happen. The 
most effective means of breaking down the barrier 
between desire and action is of course through ac- 
tion itself. But this information is no solution of 
the problem for us in our capacity as teachers. For 
the problem of moral education is : How can I, the 
teacher, help another human being, my pupil, to pass 
from one state to the other? What we can do by 
providing opportunities in the way of training has 
already been described at length. What must now 



164 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

be noted is that moral instruction also can contribute 
to the solution of the problem by supplying what 
we may call a theory of self-control. In the con- 
flict with temptation we are aided by our knowledge 
of how to handle ourselves just as truly as we are 
in any other exigency of life. We learn to box 
chiefly by boxing. But not entirely. We need a 
teacher also to show us how to strike and guard 
most effectively. Even for war there is a West 
Point. 

The Second of These Ends Is the Most Im- 
portant. — Moral instruction, then, has before it 
a threefold end. The first is knowledge of what 
is right and wrong under the various conditions 
which life may present. The second is desire to 
do right, due to an insight into the reasons for do- 
ing right. The last is knowledge of how to handle 
our character so that as life proceeds what is best 
in us may grow stronger and what is worst, ever 
weaker. 

Of these three ends the second is the most im- 
portant. It is also by far the most comprehensive, 
inasmuch as the insight which its accomplishment 
presupposes is the chief factor in attaining the other 
two. Furthermore, as will appear in its place, it 
is the only aim common to all kinds of moral in- 
struction. We shall therefore proceed to examine 
it in detail. As a necessary preliminary we shall 




EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 165 

first attempt to discover what the nature of the 
moral Hfe is. 

The Nature of the Moral Life. — Morality, as 
we have already seen, consists in the control of our 
actions by a certain spirit. It is a matter of motive 
or aim rather than of external action. This does 
not mean, as was shown in Chapter V, and indeed, 
in the paragraphs immediately above, that it con- 
sists in the mere presence of a *' feeling within the 
breast." On the contrary, it may involve a mini- 
mum of feeling. Some of the most arduous resolves 
are put through when there is behind them prac- 
tically no felt emotion whatever. The act is done 
"in cold blood." Again it does not mean that the 
morality of an action has nothing to do with re- 
sults. On the contrary, the very essence of morality 
is responsibility for results which one has knowingly 
produced by his actions. Against any such anarchi- 
cal notions as these we may set the definition of 
morality as "a determined effort to bring about a 
good result." 

The laws of morality are at once the laws of 
social welfare and of perfection of individual char- 
acter. Murder, theft, breach of contract, lying, dis- 
obedience to law, injustice, and the rest — these rep- 
resent injuries done to individuals and ordinarily 
also to the community as a whole. Carelessness, 
laziness, want of pity, want of public spirit, these 



166 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

and their like mean failure to produce good results 
in the lives of others, to make them happier and 
better. Morality, in this aspect, is service. Such 
service on the other hand means a character in which 
strength of will, unity and harmony of purpose, un- 
sullied purity, and deep and tender sympathies have 
united to form the noblest work of art which it lies 
in the power of man to create. Marcus Aurelius 
bids us "stand firm like a rock, against which though 
the waves batter, yet it remains unmoved, and they 
fall to rest at last." The Roman Emperor, like our 
own Lincoln, is a finer spectacle than the sea-girt 
cliff of which he thinks, as we behold him unmoved 
though not untouched amid the storms of adversity 
which one after another swept over his empire and 
which sank to rest, for him, only with his death. 
Marcus Aurelius played a great role on the world's 
stage. But in the commonplace every-day world 
about us live men and women of whom we might 
write as one has written of the mother of a class- 
mate : "When I think of her, it gives me a sense of 
awe like the feeling we have when looking at the 
stars or into the mysteries of life through the micro- 
scope." This aspect of character is sometimes over- 
looked in the case of those whom we personally 
know. We see such a life very much as the insect 
sees the statue upon which it crawls. But whenever 
we step back and view it as a whole we become sen- 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 167 

sible that character is valuable not merely for what 
it does but also for what it is. 

These two aspects of character must not be 
thought of as two independent things. On the con- 
trary they are as intimately related as the inside and 
the outside of a bowl. For nobility of character is 
attained only through unselfish service, while un- 
selfish service in its turn has its source in traits of 
character which evoke direct admiration, as strength 
and sensitiveness, depth and richness, purity and 
harmony of nature. While they thus form an or- 
ganic unity nevertheless each aspect appeals to its 
own set of motives. The one leads us to say: "Ich 
dien" ; the other : 

"Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul. 
As the swift seasons roll!" 

In some happy persons these two groups are fused 
to form an indistinguishable whole. There are 
others, however, in whom the one or the other ideal 
strongly predominates. Thus you may hear one 
man say, and not untruthfully : 'T have no great in- 
terest in the welfare of other people; what I want is 
to keep myself clean." His neighbor, on the other 
hand, may be so completely absorbed in the service 
of his fellow men that he forgets all about the come- 
liness of his own character. Indeed, appeals to that 
consideration may strike him as so secondary in im- 
portance as to produce in him a certain impatience. 



168 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

Evidently, then, each aspect of the moral life is so 
far distinct from the other that the corresponding 
motives must be developed each by its own special 
set of agencies. 

The Desire to Serve Can Be Strengthened 
through (1) the Discovery of the Effects of Our 
Conduct. — The desire to serve can be aroused, 
strengthened and steadied primarily by leading the 
pupils to see what differences it makes in the lives 
of other human beings whether he does right or 
wrong. We accomplish this by teaching him to use 
the category of cause and effect. This means, train- 
ing him in the habit of asking and the power to an- 
swer the question : What would be, in the immedi- 
ate and in the more remote future, the direct and the 
indirect effects of acting in this way or in that, upon 
the happiness and character of other persons? Such 
knowledge does not come of itself. In the main we 
see only what' we are looking for. Ask your friends 
whether the numerals on the dials of their watches 
are Arabic or Roman. In two cases out of three 
they will be unable to tell you. They have never 
thought to ask themselves this question. Thus it 
comes about that most of us have to be trained to 
observe, and this training consists largely (though 
not exclusively) in learning what questions to ask. 
What is here proposed, then, is to set before our pu- 
pils various concrete situations in life, and train 
th^m to ask, and answer, such questipns concerning 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 169 

them as will open their eyes to the results of meeting 
the situations in the right and the wrong way. 
Abundant illustrations of what is meant will be sup- 
plied in the following chapters. 

(2) The Development of the Power to Realize 
These Effects. — This procedure, however, may 
lead to nothing better than an abstract awareness 
that may not possess sufficient force to move the 
will. Everybody in the United States knows there 
is an immense mass of suffering in Europe to-day. 
Those who are impelled to do what little they can to 
alleviate some part of it are, in the majority of in- 
stances, those who have read or heard enough about 
the human side of the conflict — what it means to the 
individuals engaged in it and to its victims outside 
of the army — to have the phrase * 'horrors of war" 
amount to at least a little more for them than a 
mere combination of sounds. They obey the Golden 
Rule, in part at least, because they can in imagina- 
tion put themselves in the place of others. This is 
the partial explanation also of our interest In our 
children, including, be it observed, our adopted chil- 
dren. Compared with our interest in other people's 
children how deep and gripping it is! We live 
with them in their troubles with their arithme- 
tic, their ambitions in the matter of baseball, their 
dislike for clean clothes, their throbbing emotions 
on circus day. All these things in them are not ab- 
stractions to us, but rather concrete, living realities, 



170 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

continuously or at all events repeatedly before our 
mental eye. And so we care. It is not otherwise 
with regard tCK what we call our own interests. If 
my desire for a new rug is stronger than my desire 
to relieve the sufferings of the war victims in Eu- 
rope, a partial explanation at any rate is to be found 
in the fact that I can see just where the rug would 
He, what bare space it would cover, how it would 
liven up and furnish this particular room, and can 
distinctly picture with what feelings I and the other 
adult members of my family will hereafter look at 
the room — whereas the sufferings of the people in 
Europe may be a phrase that does not call up a sin- 
gle definite idea.''" 

Knowledge, then, has — roughly speaking — power 
to produce action in proportion as it represents its 
object with a vividness akin to reality. Accordingly 
the most effective device conceivable to make us 
realize what we are doing would be to compel us to 
see the effects of our good and evil deeds with our 
own eyes. "If we all ate at the same table," says 
Robert Louis Stevenson, "no one would be allowed 
to starve." The most serious feature of modern 
business life is, as has been pointed out by Pro- 
fessor Ross, that the oppressor and the murderer do 
not know or see their victims. The next best means 
is to picture the situation in the light of the recollec- 
tion of our own past experience. The boy guilty of 

* Cf. James, Principles of Psychology, vol. 1, pp. 317-327. 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 171 

petty thieving whose carefully watched watermelon, 
growing in the school garden, was stolen the night 
before he was to have picked it, learned by that ex- 
perience what loss by theft means, and as a result 
ceased from that moment his depredations. Hence 
breadth and variety of experience, if preserved by 
a retentive memory, are among the most potent in- 
strumentalities of moral instruction. Where neither 
of these agencies is available we must depend upon 
the power and the habit of imaging faithfully, com- 
pletely and vividly, the effects in other lives of one's 
actions and one's refusals to act. This pow6r, of 
course, can be developed only by exercise, and can 
be developed to the best advantage only by exercise 
under skilful guidance. Again the following chap- 
ters will supply the necessary illustrations. 

(3) The Development o£ a Spirit of Hopeful- 
ness. — If we are to serve others at the cost of 
personal sacrifice, we must believe that our actions 
are of some real value to them; we must believe, in 
other words, in the possibility of success in service. 
In many cases the outcome of the proposed action in 
behalf of another is perfectly obvious. In many 
others the outcome is a matter of guessing, and 
which way we guess will depend largely upon our 
entire attitude toward Jife. It thus becomes of great 
importance to create in our pupils what may be 
called the melioristic creed. This means the belief 
that the race has to a large extent its fate in its own 



172 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

hands, and life can therefore be made better worth 
while than it otherwise would be or rendered more 
bitter than death by human actions. The conception 
of human progress, some definite notions of the 
causes which have produced it in the past and may 
be trusted to produce it in the future, are thus a very 
important equipment for the moral life. Without 
such ideas there may be conscientiousness, but there 
is likely to be little enthusiasm ; and, as we have in- 
sisted once before, "No virtue is safe that is not 
enthusiastic." 

To summarize what has been said on this subject 
thus far : Morality is an attempt to bring into ex- 
istence values, in other words, experiences that are 
worth having; the fundamental condition of the de- 
sire to do right, accordingly, is a realizing sense of 
the values at stake, accompanied by the belief that 
they can be attained, whether in whole or in part, 
by our efforts. 

(4) Increased Respect or Admiration for Our 
Fellow Men. — For the average man or woman 
it is usually not sufficient to know and realize the 
value of the services which he can perform for his 
fellows. He must hold the prospective recipient 
worthy of the service. The majority of people will 
under ordinary circumstances make sacrifices for no 
one except moral Phi Beta Kappas. Altruism, in 
other words, appears in their conduct only when it 
has been awakened by admiration. The question 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 173 

whether John Howard was justified in devoting his 
Hfe to prison reform at the cost of the welfare of his 
son was answered in the negative by a young woman 
with this significant reservation: "If the prisoners 
had been good men it would have been different." 
Indeed, many persons carry this principle still far- 
ther. They consider themselves quite justified in 
turning their backs upon every demand of morality 
where those whom they dislike are concerned. Most 
young children, for example, think it right to lie to 
the teacher if she is "sassy" or otherwise objection- 
able. A twelve-year-old boy succinctly stated the 
principle in this form : "It's mean to hit a dog, but 
Fd hit a cat every time." This feature of human na- 
ture is far from being confined to childhood. It is 
true that those In whom the enthusiasm of humanity 
is strong will not pause to investigate the moral 
status of those whom they believe they can benefit. 
We are not told that Howard, for instance, was 
under any illusion as to the actual character of the 
men and women for whom he lived and died. Nev- 
ertheless that belief in the dignity and nobility of the 
human race which is essential to the existence of a 
broad altruism in some persons is favorable to its 
healthy growth in all, and should, therefore, be care- 
fully fostered. 

With this end in view we may study the live^ of 
the moral leaders of the race. The young man who 
knows something of the vain efforts made to bribe 



174 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

Franklin, Washington, and the other American 
patriots in the early years of the American Revo- 
lution is safe from the doctrine that every man has 
his price. He who is familiar with the career of 
W. H. Baldwin, Jr., will not be tempted to believe 
that all high endeavor belongs to a remote past.* 
And the qualities which inspire reverence in the lead- 
ers he must be taught to discover in the apparently 
commonplace men and women about him. He must 
know of the teacher, for instance, who denied 
himself everything beyond the barest necessities of 
life that a younger brother might be educated; of 
the forewoman in a burning building who lost her 
life in saving the girls under her charge. Nor can 
we stop here. He must become acquainted with 
those paradoxes of the moral life, which if they are 
the despair are also the hope of the reformer; such 
cases as that of the manufacturer who at the very 
time that he is grinding down the helpless women 
in his employment is giving up amusements, the 
society of friends, personal pleasures and comforts, 
and the very wealth gained by his oppression in his 
devotion to an invalid wife. Finally we should ex- 
hibit the power of the material and social environ- 
ment to destroy or to stunt the growth of the germs 
of high aspiration and noble endeavor, so that he 
may see, if not in all, yet in the vast majority of his 



* See An American Cithen; the Life of W. H. Baldwin, Jr., 
by John Graham Brooks. Houghton Mifflin, 1910. 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 175 

fellow beings the undeveloped potentialities of the 
courage, strength and devotion that bear their per- 
fect fruit in the life of the hero and the saint. For 
examples of such tragedies he will not have to go 
to the works of George Eliot. All about us are Silas 
Marners, as hard, as bitter as he was before the 
storm and the winter's cold laid the little child at his 
door. It is not so much what man is as what he has 
it in him to become that will be, for most of our 
pupils, the source of moral inspiration. 

(5) The Recognition of the Claims o£ Grati- 
tude. — Closely akin to the influence of admira- 
tion upon altruism is that of gratitude. Moral in- 
struction may open the ears of our pupils to its 
claims by enabling them to hear its call when they 
might otherwise be deaf to it. 

"The evil that men do lives after them, 
The good is oft interred with their bones." 

This is not the worst of the matter. The good 
done to us by others is often buried in forget fulness 
the day after the benefit, while an injury may rankle 
in our memory for years. Thus it comes about that 
a single wrong done us by a friend or acquaintance 
may blind us to a hundred past services. Moral in- 
struction can and should train us to see life steadily 
and see it whole in this as in all other aspects. 

Certain of the greatest services of which we are 



176 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

the beneficiaries we habitually ignore, indeed are 
often ignorant of. I mean those services, sometimes 
purchased by the extreme of sacrifice, which have 
created some part of our material civilization and 
the greater proportion of the social institutions and 
cultural values under which we live. Public spirit, 
and national and race patriotism will be awakened by 
showing what has been done in the past, what is be- 
ing done to-day, always by honest and faithful labor, 
often with no thought and sometimes no possibility 
of requital, to create the best elements in the life of 
America and the life of the world. Thus when a 
man has been educated at the cost of great sacrifices 
on the part of his father, he will feel doubly bound 
to make similar sacrifices in turn, if necessary, in 
order to educate his own children. Looked at from 
this point of view, social service becomes a matter of 
justice, in other words a point of honor for one 
who is unwilling to live as a mere sponge. 

The Existence in Every Normal Human Being 
of the Desire to Serve. — The belief that results 
will follow such studies of life as have just been 
suggested rests upon the conviction that the social 
spirit is present in greater or less fulness in every 
normal human being. For we can do nothing to 
develop ideals unless their germs, or at least their 
potentialities, are present at the outset. The teacher 
can no more make something out of nothing than 
can the farmer. As has already been said, the work 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 177 

of such men as William George in the United States, 
of Arnold and Barnardo in England, shows how 
much of good may lie hidden in the most unprom- 
ising material. A generation ago criminal psychol- 
ogy made much of the conception of the "moral 
imbecile." He was defined as a being who displayed 
not even the most elementary capacity for moral 
feeling, so that he could commit the most horrible 
crimes imaginable without scruple and look back 
upon them without remorse. The conception still 
remains. But recent investigators seem to have 
shown that the "moral imbecile" is in every case 
also distinctly subnormal intellectually. If this view 
is correct a perfectly definite signification can be at- 
tached to the word normal as used above. It means 
one capable intellectually of carrying on the work of 
the school. It includes every one, therefore, who 
has any business to be in your class. 

A view indeed exists according to which children 
of elementary-school age, or at least of the earlier 
grades, are still in the stage of moral imbecility. 
This means among other things that they are 
through and through egoistic, and egoistic in a very 
crass and short-sighted way. Children undoubtedly 
differ as truly as do men and women. But the state- 
ment that the normal child of six to twelve years of 
age is nothing but a mass of crass, short-range ego- 
ism is through and through false. Observe the chil- 
dren themselves at first hand, having freed your 



178 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

mind from all "culture epoch" hypotheses and simi- 
lar products of speculation. Or examine the various 
studies of children's moral ideas made by Earl 
Barnes and his collaborators. You will discover 
there not a developed (of course) but a developing 
moral life. In the lower grades you will find a 
being who is interested chiefly in the here and the 
now, that which he can see, that which he can realize 
because its exact duplicate has taken place recently 
in his experience and has been remembered. He is 
not greatly interested in famines in China or the 
progress of democracy. He is not even much inter- 
ested in his own remote future. Offer him his choice 
between a ticket for the circus to-morrow and a 
beautiful gold watch when he is twenty-one and any- 
body can predict the outcome. But this same boy 
may be very willing to submit to real deprivations 
for the benefit of his mother, or to share his candy 
with his little sister. A kindly spirit toward (cer- 
tain) animals can be cultivated in him without diffi- 
culty even before school age. The beginnings of 
pity, gratitude, loyalty, the desire to be trusted and 
to be trustworthy, and a sense of fairness are de- 
monstrable by the fifth year. By this time have 
appeared also the faint beginnings of the power to 
deny himself the indulgence of to-day for the sake 
of the greater good of to-morrow (not next week). 
These capacities display themselves, indeed, sporad- 
ically rather than continuously. They are for a long 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 179 

time weak, precisely as his intellect, and for that 
matter his muscles, are weak. But by the time school 
age is reached standards, however inadequate and 
narrow in range, and voluntary obedience to stand- 
ards, are an absolutely unmistakable feature of the 
great majority of these young lives. 

The contrary view is the product not of unbiased 
observation but of a piece of psychological specula- 
tion known as the culture epoch theory. I do not 
mean to discuss this now all but universally aban- 
doned generalization. It is regarded by practically 
all authorities as a flimsy structure, built hastily and 
carelessly upon the foundation of a small number of 
undeniable biological facts and some very shaky 
ethnography. Whatever truths it may ultimately 
prove to contain, this is certain to-day. It suffers 
from so many and so important exceptions that it 
is a worse than useless guide to observation. The 
facts of child development must be learned from the 
direct observation of children and from it alone. I 
am perfectly willing to leave my contention to the 
arbitrament of that court. 

Awakening the Desire for Excellence of Char- 
acter. — The moral life has, as we have seen, an- 
other aspect besides service. It involves excellence 
of personal character. To strengthen the love for 
right action, then, is, in the second place, to bring 
home to the mind its direct attractiveness, those 
characteristics in virtue of which it arouses admira- 



180 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

tion. Many of these characteristics are universal in 
their appeal, awakening a response in the young 
when recognized, as certainly as among the old. 
Foremost among them comes strength or power. 
When it is seen for what it really is, moral power 
arouses admiration as directly and unreservedly as 
do physical and intellectual power. The first form, 
ordinarily, which makes a definite appeal to a child 
is physical courage, then perhaps the strength in- 
volved in faithfulness to a leader under trying cirr 
cumstances, after that the strength that is not in- 
frequently demanded by loyalty to a cause (as the 
honor of one's school), then control over temper or 
kindred passions, patience, perseverance, still later 
the control of the appetites, finally moral courage 
and the higher forms of self-control. As one part 
of the picture unrolls after the other the fact will 
gradually dawn upon him that the genuinely good 
boy is not a spiritless, craven, imimaginative and 
dull creature as a widely-held tradition conceives 
him, but a being with plenty of red blood, with 
strong impulses, desires, and even passions, but one 
possessed of sufficient will power to keep each in its 
proper place so that the boy himself, not they, deter- 
mines his conduct. When he has discovered this 
fact he will know something which has been for- 
ever hidden from thousands of the followers of the 
drug-crazed Nietzsche. 

But there are other aspects of character that are 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 181 

also capable of appealing to the admirations of a 
boy. If not confused by suggestions of what he re- 
gards as sentimentality he admires directly and for 
its own sake the spirit which prompts to service, 
especially certain forms of it in their concrete mani- 
festations, more particularly loyalty to leader or 
comrades (apart from the strength of will that it 
may under certain circumstances require). He ad- 
mires always the spirit of fair play; under some cir- 
cumstances, generosity, mercy and the like. 

The function of the teacher is to present these 
things with such fidelity to truth and with such con- 
creteness that they will be seen in their native at- 
tractiveness, so that emulation may follow upon 
admiration, and the striving for the attainment of 
the highest goods of character may become an inte- 
gral part of daily life. 

The Portrayal of Evil in Moral Instruction. — 
"We live by admiration, hope, and love," writes 
Wordsworth. These it is that give life — for us 
adults at least — most of its value. These it is that 
give to the will much of its vigor — but by no means 
all. Hatred of evil and the fear of its ravages may 
also be a tremendously powerful spring of action. 
In the battle for moral progress we can not afford 
to throw away any form of motive power. Evil 
is a fact. You can not describe life fairly without 
it. Indeed, you can not develop a full appreciation 
of the good except as it is made to appear in contrast 



182 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

with the bad. For these reasons the teacher will 
not, as a rule, try to push entirely to one side or turn 
the attention entirely away from the ugly side of the 
ways of man. The lower school grades may well 
form an exception to this statement. And the reve- 
lation of the repulsiveness of disloyalty, baseness, 
vice, cowardice, falseness and cruelty should be made 
gradually. But it should be made, the teacher always 
keeping somewhat close to the actual experiences of 
the developing child. As the pupil's mind grows 
more mature, a realizing sense of the danger of con- 
tamination from these ugly things, and the purpose 
to allow them to form no part of his character — 
what is commonly called the motive of self-respect 
— must be cultivated, by the side of the desire for 
strength and harmony and charm of character. 

The Claims of Egoism. — There have been 
writers on ethics who have held that morality con- 
sists in the service of others only. We have just seen 
that this attempt to separate the interests of self and 
others breaks down, that one can not serve others 
without growing in strength, purity, and beauty of 
character. If this is a necessary aspect of the life of 
service, the desire to possess a better character 
rather than a worse can not be regarded as some- 
thing foreign to morality. But the world of every- 
day men and women has always held, and the ethical 
authorities agree with them to-day, that a man has 
a duty to himself, as well as to his neighbor; and 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 183 

that his duty is not merely a duty to seek the good 
things of character but also to satisfy his other per- 
sonal desires. It is true that we do not ordinarily 
in e very-day speech use the term, duty to self. Nev- 
ertheless all of us believe that a person is justified 
at certain points in taking care of his own interests, 
and that in so doing his character does not suffer 
precisely because they have a just claim upon him. 
'T must not break my back to heal his finger," says 
one of Shakespeare's characters. Thou shalt love 
thy neighbor as thyself, is the expression given to 
this truth by the founder of Christianity. Morality 
represents the ideal of the impartial spectator, is the 
way some moralists have stated it. To a genuinely 
impartial view my interests can not appear valueless, 
any more than they can appear to outweigh those of 
the remainder of the human race. In the moral 
ideal, then, each individual finds his place as being 
neither the center of the system nor a mere zero. 
The moral point of view is the Copemican point of 
view. 

It follows from the preceding that the aim of 
moral education in no way includes the destruction 
of a regard for our own happiness, and that the at- 
tempt to do so is as vicious as the old-fashioned pre- 
scription to break the will. You must, of course, 
keep egoism in its place. But what the world needs 
in most cases is not less egoism but more. The 
trouble with the majority of people is not that they 



184 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

are too egoistic but that they are "hogs/* That is 
to say they are so short-sighted that they can not see 
beyond the interests of to-day. I think it will be 
found that most of the men capable of acting with 
reference to the remote future for themselves are 
precisely the persons who most consistently regard 
also the legitimate interests of others. 

The Possibility of a Conflict between Egoism 
and Altruism.— -The moral ideal, in demanding 
a due regard for the interests of self and the inter- 
ests of others recognizes the possibility of a conflict 
between the two. It is equally true, however, that to 
a gaze which can penetrate beneath the surface of 
life the number of such conflicts is far less than is 
imagined by superficial public opinion. As a matter 
of fact, the interests of each individual are inex- 
tricably intertwined with those of others, in the last 
resort with those of the community and indeed of 
the race. He can not seriously injure himself with- 
out injuring others, ordinarily many others. A typ- 
ical illustration is offered by the effects of habitual 
drunkenness. Similarly others can not suffer in 
body, mind or character, in outward circumstances 
or inner conditions, without his suffering also in the 
final outcome. In serving himself he ordinarily 
serves others ; in serving others he serves himself. 

In making this insight an integral part of the 
work in moral instruction we do not mean that you 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 185 

can make an unselfish person out of a complete ego- 
ist by showing him that it is profitable for him to 
consult the interests of others. What is meant is 
rather this: If the egoistic desires look upon the 
altruistic as their enemies they will attempt to crush 
them. It is precisely the most reflective persons — ' 
and we are trying to make our pupils reflective by 
every course we give in school — that will be most 
subject to this temptation. If on the other hand 
they look upon them not as necessary enemies but as 
being rather under ordinary circumstances allies, 
such attacks will lose all motive. 

Summary. — The preceding statements may be 
summarized as follows. Awakening and strength- 
ening the love of the right means the following 
things: (1) Training our pupils to think of human 
life, more particularly their own life, in terms of 
cause and effect; more specifically, training them to 
discover in the case of any act under consideration 
what will be its direct and indirect effects, present 
and remote, upon tht happiness and character of 
others and upon the happiness and character of self ; 
and (2) interesting them in these effects not merely 
through an abstract knowledge of their existence, 
but also through the development of the power to 
realize what they actually mean, through the instil- 
ling of confidence in the possibility of success, and 
through the creation of an insight into the facts 



186 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

which arouse emotions of admiration and of grat- 
itude. 

The Discovery of Identities and Differences. 

— The mind gains knowledge, both in the material 
world and in the mental world, not merely by direct 
observation but also by passing from the already 
known to the unknown through the discovery of 
identities. We can not omit to employ this relation- 
ship in our voyages of discovery in the moral world. 
Thus a deed which spontaneously awakens no emo- 
tional response may be shown to involve the posses- 
sion of a trait of character which we admire. No 
boy, for example, was ever insensible to the courage 
of Froissart's or Malory's heroes. It is not impossi- 
ble to lead him to see that this does not differ in kind 
from the moral courage that makes a boy tell the 
truth even if he is to be punished as a result, or that 
enables him to take the unpopular side among his 
companions. In some prosaic service that may spare 
his mother weariness, or in the protection and care 
of his little sister, or of the younger boys on the 
playground, he may be made to recognize the chiv- 
alry of a knight of the Round Table. 

Similarly actions in themselves low and base 
which nevertheless pass unchallenged may be ex- 
hibited as identical in nature with what is certain to 
arouse disapprobation. A newspaper proprietor, an 
editor of the last generation, used the influence of 
his paper — as long as it retained any influence — 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 187 

solely for the benefit of his private likings and 
hatreds, and where these did not enter, of his pock- 
etbook. In the pursuit of these aims he hesitated 
not an instant to champion corruption in public life, 
to prevent the punishment of influential criminals, 
to do his part to undermine the system created to 
protect the public health, the public-school system, 
and whatever else in that city made for the physical 
or mental or moral well-being of its citizens. This 
he did without subjecting himself to any particularly 
serious criticism on the part of any large number in 
the community. According to the ethics of the day, 
this was just "business." One afternoon this man 
happened to be sitting on the deck of a steamer, by 
the side of a woman acquaintance whom he had 
chanced to meet, when suddenly there was raised the 
cry: Fire! In the confusion which followed our 
editor succeeded in seizing a life preserver. He was 
fastening it about his body when the lady, who had 
been overpowered in the crush and had not been 
able to get a life preserver for herself, called loudly 
to her companion for help. "Every one for him- 
self,'* he cried, and leaped overboard, leaving the 
lady to her fate. This incident aroused the people 
of the country from one end to the other. It de- 
stroyed forever, I suppose, what influence he had in 
the city of his residence. Yet what was this more 
than a dramatic illustration of the principle upon 
which he had been running his newspaper for years 



188 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

without ever arousing wide-spread or vigorous cen- 
sure ? To make our pupils realize the repulsiveness 
of an evil deed or an evil course, accordingly, it is 
often sufficient to show that it is identical in nature 
with a perfectly obvious case of cowardice or other 
form of weakness of will, or lack of chivalry, or 
sponging, or some other form of base selfishness, 
treachery, disloyalty or unfairness, against which 
their whole nature will rise in revolt. 

As we must train in the making of true identifi- 
cations so must we train in the detection of false 
ones. Most children and perhaps most adults have 
to be taught to see the difference between the vice of 
the spendthrift and genuine generosity, between 
rashness and true courage, between perseverance 
and obstinacy, between self-confidence based on an 
experimental knowledge of one's inner resources 
and self-conceit. 

Morality Not Something Alien from Human 
Nature. — The teacher has before him, on the one 
hand, the pupil with his admirations and his de- 
sires; on the other, the moral law with its demands. 
If he is to do his work well he must understand that 
these are not two things, but one. The moral law 
represents what the good man wants to do. It is 
the incorporation of the ideals of a man when he is 
most himself. A man is most himself when he is 
free from appetites and passions which, when they 
are gone, he hates, and from which he would at all 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 189 

times gladly be free ; when he sees most clearly and 
comprehensively his relations to his fellow men; 
when he realizes most vividly and completely the is- 
sues that depend upon his conduct. Morality, then, 
is not something alien from our will, a burden im- 
posed upon us from without. On the contrary, it is 
the expression of our deepest and most permanent 
desires. This statement holds in principle for the 
school child as it does for the adult. Right doing 
is that which appeals to his most deeply rooted ad- 
mirations, which realizes his ambition to be strong 
of will, his longing to think well of himself, which 
satisfies his love of fair play, his craving to be loyal, 
in general all the unselfish impulses of his nature, 
and at bottom and in the long run his desire for his 
own true, enduring good. 

Moral education thus starts just as does intellec- 
tual education, from the equipment which the pupil 
brings with him to the school. This equipment is a 
great body of desires, an inchoate, incompletely de- 
veloped mass, for the most part unformulated, only 
half realized, in some cases amounting to little more 
than bare potentialities. The teacher's function is 
to raise these to a clear consciousness of their end, 
to strengthen and steady them and thus help them 
to obtain full control of the will, to aid the pupil in 
discovering the means by which they may be most 
completely realized, and in so doing to reveal to 
him the fact that it is precisely the demands of the 



190 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

moral law that are calculated to satisfy the most 
permanent and fundamental elements in his nature. 

Moral Ideals Subject to Growth. — If moral 
education can accomplish nothing except on the basis 
of the child's ideals at the time, it must never forget 
that these are not something fixed. On the contrary, 
they are continuously — though for the most part 
slowly — changing, and that riot merely in childhood 
and youth, but also — though of course at a far less 
rapid rate — ^throughout the entire life. The order 
of these changes is by no means an arbitrary one. 
It depends in part upon what we do, the deed react- 
ing upon the ideal. It turns, also, upon the influences 
to which we are subject in human society and much 
else of the same sort. But the order of development 
is also determined by forces lying within the or- 
ganism which are to a considerable extent — in the 
same sense in which it is true of an acorn — inde- 
pendent of the environment. 

There is, then, a normal order of the development 
of moral ideals, however imperfectly we may at 
present be acquainted with that order, and however 
many exceptions there may turn out to be, in indi- 
vidual cases, to the laws which we shall some day 
succeed in formulating. We meet the same phenom- 
enon, of course, in educating the intellect. And pre- 
cisely as in intellectual education our starting point 
must always be the present knowledge and the pres- 
ent intellectual powers possessed by the pupil, and 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 191 

the limits of what we can accomplish at any given 
time are set by the highest stretch of his powers at 
that time, so in moral education we must start from 
the ideals he possesses at the time and can not 
proceed farther than they will carry him. For ex- 
ample, the majority of young children, when 
wronged, often when merely injured, are revenge- 
ful. This does not merely mean they want to hurt 
the aggressor, but also that there is nothing within 
them to make them feel this is wrong. A larger 
number than is commonly supposed carry this atti- 
tude with them throughout life.* But there comes a 
time, for most young people at least, when altruistic 
ideals are able to raise their head against the demand 
for vengeance, and at least to moderate and set 
narrow limits to its exercise. When this time comes 
the teacher and parent may discuss with profit the 
duty of loving one's enemies. Before this it is ad- 
visable to avoid the subject entirely, except in some 
indirect manner after the fashion of a flank attack. 
The same considerations must guide us in treating 
the subjects of veracity, school fights, honesty and 
all the complex code connected with property rights, 
national and race patriotism, and indeed every de- 
partment of the field of morals. Every lever must 
have a fulcrum. In the field of human motives the 



* F. C. Sharp and M. C. Otto, A Study of the Popular Atti- 
tude toward Retributive Punishment, International Journal of 
Ethics, vol. 20, p. 341. 



192 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

attempt to operate without one is not merely useless, 
it is positively harmful. 

The Function of Moral Instruction. — This 
does not conclude what I have to say about the gen- 
eral aims of moral instruction, but the remainder is 
left till it will be needed, in Chapter XVI. What has 
been said, however, shows its essential features. Its 
work, we see, is not to praise. This soon grows 
monotonous and later positively irritating. It is not 
to advise. Advice unsought is under most circum- 
stances unwelcome and therefore profitless. It is 
not to exhort. To exhort is to say, *T want you to 
do so and so." But that information is ordinarily 
of little interest to any one else. Its mission is a far 
higher one, that of a revealer of truth — the truth 
about the moral life. 



CHAPTER XIII 

TRAINING IN MORAL THOUGHTFULNESS 

Instruction in the Sense of Pouring in Infor- 
mation Relatively Worthless. — The word instruc- 
tion suggests the idea of pouring information into 
the ear as water is poured into a bowl. But if the 
processes which the poverty of our language com- 
pels us to include under this term are to produce val- 
uable and permanent results in the life of the child 
they must involve something more than the mere 
giving and receiving of so many teaspoonfuls or gal- 
lons of knowledge. The first defect of such a method 
is that it does not accomplish satisfactorily even the 
narrow aims which it sets before itself. Material 
introduced into the system in this manner is in great 
part not assimilated, and even where it is, is not apt 
to be long retained by the memory. But this is only 
the first count in the indictment. Suppose these 
ends attained as completely as you will, it still re- 
mains true that your pupil has gained neither the 
power to use his faculties nor the habit of using 
them. Knowledge may be golden (perhaps) ; but if 
you have the power to secure knowledge for your- 
self you have the goose that lays the golden Qgg. For 
suppose your pupil, crammed to the brim with mere 

193 



194 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

information, finds himself in a situation which your 
instructions have not covered, what is he going to 
do? You will make the melancholy discovery that 
he is ordinarily quite unable to make even the sim- 
plest application of the principles which you have 
inculcated with so much care. So after all your ef- 
forts he goes astray. 

Application to Morals. — ^These strictures on 
the pouring-in method apply to every part of the 
field of knowledge from history to astronomy. But 
in the field of morals there are additional very seri- 
ous objections to its use. I shall mention the two 
that seem most important. 

The Limitations of Authority in Morals. — No 
distinction is more frequently overlooked than that 
between what we believe and what we believe we 
believe, and, in matters moral, few distinctions are * 
more important. Ask a hundred persons who re- 
gard the Sermon on the Mount as an infallible, God- 
given revelation, whether they consider revenge 
wrong, and the great majority will answer, yes. Put 
a series of concrete cases to them, the overwhelming 
majority will sooner or later justify punishment in 
revenge. Face them with the specific prohibitions of 
Matthew V, and at least half will stand by their 
guns.* Indeed, so weak is mere authority where it 

*A portion of the data on which the above statements are 
based will be found in the author's monograph, The Influence 
of Custom on the Moral Judgment (published by the Univer- 
sity of Wisconsin), chapters ii and iv; the rest are taken 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 195 

comes into conflict with convictions having their 
source in deeply-rooted emotions, that although for 
sixteen centuries the Gospels have been the official 
guide of morals in Christendom, during the greater 
part of this time the belief has been not merely cher- 
ished in the bottom of the heart, but openly formu- 
lated and all but universally avowed, that revenge 
under certain circumstances is not merely a right, 
but the most sacred of duties. What holds for a 
book regarded as infallible will certainly hold for 
the teacher who can urge no claim to infallibility. 
Dr. Elliott, who has been conducting courses in 
moral instruction in the New York Ethical Culture 
School for many years, informs the author that 
nothing which he can say avails to convince his 
twelve- to fourteen-year-old pupils that revenge is 
wrong. 

The truth is that moral instruction does not have 
a mass of putty to deal with, as many people vainly 
imagine.* Ideal, however incoherent and imper- 
fectly formulated, faces ideal from the day the 
teacher is confronted with his pvipil in the school. 
Where there is conflict you can produce conviction — 



from a still unpublished study on the attitude toward revenge 
as exhibited by students in the Short Course in Agriculture 
in this university. Compare Dewey, The Chaos in Moral 
Training, Popular Science Monthly, August, 1894. 

* Our entire theory of the influence of authority upon 
moral ideals needs a thorough overhauling. It is in about the 
same stage to-day that the theories (or rather guesses based 
upon meditations in the library) concerning the mental proc- 
esses of animals were fifty years ago. 



196 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

which is something very different from silence — in 
the main only by showing that the action you de- 
sire him to approve is demanded by some ideal of his 
own. The principle is essentially that which is a 
commonplace in intellectual education, namely that 
all description and explanation must start from 
knowledge which the child already possesses, and 
that information imparted on any other basis gives 
nothing but "parrot knowledge." 

Now it is conceivable that you might produce 
conviction in the matter of right and wrong by a 
demonstration which you yourself conducted, as 
teacher, for the benefit of your class, as some teach- 
ers demonstrate for their classes the propositions in 
geometry. But apart from the more obvious differ- 
ences between mathematics and morals, in the latter 
field self-interest and powerful passions tend to de- 
flect the attention and paralyze thought along one 
line, and produce hypertrophy of attention and 
thought along the opposite line, so that even where 
there is verbal assent, there may not be even the 
beginnings of genuine conviction. And where there 
is momentary conviction — we have all observed ex- 
amples of this — it may be wiped from the memory, 
like the pencil marks upon the slate, within an hour's 
time. The pouring-in method, then, can ordinarily 
do no more than make the pupil believe he believes, 
and this is not the kind of conviction with which 
one can struggle successfully against temptation. 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 197 

The only way to develop principles which are certain 
to stand the test is to have the pupil, under the 
guidance of the teacher, arrive at a recognition of 
their truth by his own efforts. 

The Limitations of Abstract Knowledge. — 
Suppose, however, conviction to have been produced 
— and preserved. There is still a gap before action 
is reached. Ordinarily, especially in the young, 
some amount of realization is requisite in order to 
bring about action, if forces of any strength are 
marshaled in opposition. But information poured 
into the mind from without is ordinarily not the 
most effective instrument for the production of a 
realizing sense of the demands of a situation met in 
actual experience. Consequently there often re- 
mains a great gulf between moral instruction and 
moral practise, the existence of which the enemies of 
the former have not been slow to observe and pro- 
claim. 

The Work of "Moral Instruction" Should 
Consist in Training in Moral Thoughtfulness. — 
If the criticisms of the preceding paragraph are 
valid, the pouring-in method, as a means of pre- 
paring the young for life, must be largely or totally 
abandoned. Our central aim, it must be remem- 
bered, is to send out from the schools young people 
who are able to see and realize the true nature of the 
right and wrong courses of action respectively, to 
see and realize in a given situation what difference 



198 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

it makes whether they do right or wrong. But in the 
last analysis one learns really to see — as distin- 
guished from thinking that he sees — by seeing, as 
he learns to swim by swimming. Not lectures from 
the teacher, or words of wisdom from the text-book, 
or "memory gems" are the chief need, then, but 
rather such a course of procedure as will arouse the 
activity of the pupil's own mind. Our aim, accord- 
ingly, must not be to give information, but rather to 
develop power — the power of observing and reflect- 
ing upon the moral issues involved in conduct. And 
since power which one does not use does its pos- 
sessor and the world no good, we want to develop 
the habit of using this power. If we designate the 
possession of the power and the corresponding habit 
as moral thought fulness, we may say that the great 
end of moral "instruction" is a certain kind of train- 
ing, training in moral thought fulness. 

The Nature and Value of Moral Thoughtful- 
ness. — The term "moral thoughtfulness" is bor- 
rowed from Thomas Arnold, and was a favorite 
with him. In one of his letters he wrote: "When 
I look around upon boys or men, there seems to me 
some one point or quality which distinguishes really 
noble persons from ordinary ones ; it is not religious 
feeling, it is not honesty or kindness; but it seems 
to me to be moral thoughtfulness."* 

Moral thoughtfulness is at once a power and a 

* Stanley's Life of Thomas Arnold, vol. 2, p. 13, fifth edition. 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 199 

habit, the power and the habit, namely, of reflect- 
ing upon the moral issues involved in conduct. He 
who possesses it is likely, in the end, to come into 
the possession of most of the information which the 
pouring-in process aims to bestow; what he has 
learned will not be forgotten ; he will be able to find 
his way amid circumstaiices concerning which his 
instructor has supplied him with no information, 
and to discover the moral issues at stake in situa- 
tions concerning which his instructor has said noth- 
ing. The convictions obtained by the use of his 
own faculties will be his own property, and the dis- 
tinction between what he believes and what he be- 
lieves he believes will disappear. Furthermore, 
what he has gained will be seen by him in its con- 
creteness. This means that its content is realized 
and its significance apprehended. It therefore tends, 
through its hold upon the imagination, to kindle 
strongly the feelings, and accordingly has a much 
increased chance of passing over into action. When 
temptation assails him he possesses a resource which 
no mere reliance upon habit or public opinion can 
afford, the strength of reasoned conviction. He 
does not fight for what he only vaguely feels, but for 
clearly recognized and definitely appraised values. 
The deliberate aim of seeking the best becomes in- 
corporated into his program of life, with the result, 
as in the case of every clearly conceived and per- 
sistently pursued aim, that the interests involved 



200 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

grow more and more precious to him with the pas- 
sage of time. Thus three things are accompHshed. 
The significance of his every-day actions, their rela- 
tions to his moral ideals, are uncovered; the kinds 
of action demanded by his ideals are discovered; 
and the ideals themselves, in becoming defined and 
formulated and made the object of his solicitude, are 
broadened in range and strengthened in their hold 
upon his affections. 

The Field of Moral Instruction.—The field of 
moral instruction is as broad as the entire course 
of study, and includes in addition some things that 
form no part of the program of most of our Ameri- 
can schools. Literature, history, civics and, to a less 
degree, the natural sciences, may contribute their 
part if they will. In addition it may and should 
include the systematic study of the conduct of life, 
whether in the concrete, through biography and sim- 
ilar subjects, or in a more generalized form, through 
the examination of the laws of right living. We 
shall take up these subjects in turn, beginning with 
those which form a part of the ordinary curriculum. 



CHAPTER XIV 

MORAL INSTRUCTION THROUGH THE EXISTING 
CURRICULUM 

Moral thought fulness, as I have asserted, can be 
developed in our pupils only by training them to 
study human life. Of the subjects of the school 
curriculum the most valuable for this purpose are 
those which deal directly with life itself. These are 
history, literature and civics. Other parts of the 
curriculum may be so shaped as to contribute to this 
end also : geography, as a study of the material en- 
vironment of man; biology, as a study of the laws to 
which man must conform as an animal ; physics and 
chemistry, as a study of the fundamental laws of the 
environment and animal body alike. All of these, 
together with mathematics, may be studied on the 
side of their history through the biographies of the 
great leaders — a study for which there is mp.ch to be 
said from many points of view. In so doing there 
may be obtained certain of the results which are 
produced by the study of other departments of his- 
tory. In the discussion of this matter I have space 
only for a survey of the three leading subjects, his- 

201 



202 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

tory, literature and civics. The problem of the chap- 
ter may be formulated as follows: What can the 
teachers of history, literature and civics do to train 
their pupils in moral thought fulness? 

Training in Moral Thoughtfulness through 
History. — In order to make a distinction be- 
tween history and biography (which latter will be 
considered elsewhere) I shall treat history as deal- 
ing with the life of communities rather than of in- 
dividuals, though this distinction is somewhat arti- 
ficial and can by no means be carried through 
rigorously. This does not mean that history in this 
sense can neglect individuals; but it deals with 
them, so to speak, not in their own right, but chiefly 
as leaders or as representatives of movements or 
types of life. To forestall a possible objection I 
will add that I believe the course which goes under 
the name of history in the elementary school should 
consist largely of biographical material. 

(1) The Direct Influence of Character upon 
Character.— History, however, even in the just- 
defined sense of the term, will never be able to dis- 
pense with accounts of great men and great deeds. 
Hence its most obvious asset as an instrument for 
training character. Personalities that habitually ex- 
hibit strength and devotion of character, and heroic 
incidents, together with more commonplace in- 
stances of devotion to duty, arouse admiration and 
strengthen and often clarify the love of excellence, 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 203 

and in so doing awaken or strengthen the desire to 
act in like manner. The results of the attempts of 
the British government to bribe the leaders of the 
American Revolution shame our cold and weak- 
kneed patriotism, and at the same time awaken in 
the more generous natures the desire to possess 
equal strength and equal capacity for devotion. 
They do more than this. As events in history they 
not merely present attractive pictures; they prove 
the existence of incorruptibility as a fact, and in 
so doing reveal the higher possibilities of human 
nature. The belief that such characters have actu- 
ally existed arouses emulation, as nothing regarded 
merely as a creation of the imagination ever could. 
Accounts of such steadfastness in the face of temp- 
tation also tend to make us less cynical in our judg- 
ments of the leaders of the political, business, social 
and scientific world. In liberating us thus from the 
mean and enviou.s im_pulse to drag others down to 
our own moral level, as many of the contemporaries 
of Washington and Lincoln tried to drag them down, 
they make us more ready to trust and follow. They 
tend also to make us more willing to serve. To 
most of us our own services seem so precious that, 
as has been said above, we are ordinarily willing 
to make real sacrifices only for the benefit of moral 
Phi Beta Kappas. History indeed teaches us that 
the web of human life is of a "mingled yarn, good 
and ill together." But history should also teach us 



204 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

that much which seems bad appears to be such only 
because we do not get the point of view of its own 
age, or see the special circumstances of the case. 
And where this explanation will not hold, where, 
when all has been said, bad remains bad, as it often 
does, the truth stands fast, nevertheless, that there 
are good men in the world as well as bad. The 
discovery of this fact deals a blow to the most dan- 
gerous form of moral skepticism, skepticism as to 
the existence of virtue in the world. "Go with 
mean people and you think life mean,'' writes 
Emerson. "Then read Plutarch, and the world is 
a proud place, peopled with men of positive quality, 
with heroes and demigods standing around us, who 
will not let us sleep." 

It is perhaps especially important at the present 
time to point out that heroic incidents are to be 
found strewn broadcast through the annals of peace 
as well as of war. Indeed, because of the absence 
of artificial excitement, as music or uniforms, and 
the frequent absence of the touch and sight of our 
fellow beings fighting in the same ranks, the heroes 
of peace must often be rated higher than those of 
war. The laying of the Atlantic cable called for 
heroism of the highest type. The honest politician 
in a legislature packed with crooks and cowards, the 
business man who, like W. H. Baldwin, Jr., will get 
business honestly or not at all, these have done the 
hardest things, these are to be ranked among the 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 205 

great benefactors and heroic figures of the race; 
these are the people who, if history is a record of the 
growth and decay of civihzation, ought to have a 
leading place in its annals. 

It is sometimes objected that since the cowardly, 
the base and the actively unprincipled play at least 
as large a role in the life of the race as do the strong 
and high-minded, the study of history is just as lia- 
ble to lead to the imitation of the bad as of the good. 
This objection overlooks an important fact, to 
which I have already called attention (Chapter II, 
page 10). Nobility of character tends to arouse 
the mind to imitation, not chiefly through some 
blind impulse, but because and in so far as it first 
arouses admiration. Whereas the character and 
conduct of the selfish and unprincipled, if presented 
together with the totality of their evil eiTects and 
from a strictly impartial point of view, must, from 
the very nature of w^rong-doing, arouse abhorrence. 
It is, for instance, only in an abstract, one-sided or 
partial view that adventurers like Aaron Burr or 
Napoleon Bonaparte arouse admiration. They did 
indeed possess certain fine traits of intellect and 
character, and for these they are admired justly. 
But when Napoleon is recognized as an all-devour- 
ing egoist, willing to use the blind devotion of such 
followers as the hero of Browning's Incident of 
the French Camp for his own narrow selfish in- 
terests, willing to plunge all Europe into the Hell 



206 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

of war and drain his own country of its life's blood 
in order that he might amuse himself by giving or- 
ders to kings and pose as the arbiter of the affairs 
of Europe, when this picture of the man reveals it- 
self to us in its completeness, contempt and disgust 
annihilate admiration for exceptional courage, per- 
sistence, patience and self-control. We discover we 
have been paying our homage not to a real hero but 
to a tawdry imitation, and thrust him from the ped- 
estal on which we had placed him. 

(2) Training in Tracing the Effects of Con- 
duct. — -History may train in the power and the 
habit of applying to one's actions the conception of 
cause and effect. This, as has already been pointed 
out, is a very important part, perhaps the most im- 
portant single part, of the ability to see the nature 
and significance of the moral life. History probably 
supplies the best material for training us to use this 
category in the world of human life. A generation 
ago we were looking to the natural sciences for this 
result. But, as almost every one now admits, the 
natural sciences have greatly disappointed us. This 
is doubtless due partly to poor teaching. The text- 
book or the lecture simply pours in information in 
the old way; the laboratory manual tells us what 
to look for ; the laboratory work itself is an exercise 
in manipulation rather than in original observation 
and thought. Quite apart from this, however, it 
is doubtful whether the natural sciences, even when 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 207 

well taught, can do all that their ardent advocates, 
such as Huxley, used to claim, in the transforming 
of mental habits. We have the old difficulty about 
the transference of training from one field to an- 
other. In history this transfer is not violent. Its 
subject-matter is human life, although of course hu- 
man life in the mass. Under the guidance of an 
historian such as Lecky it is always asking what 
were the causes of the historical phenomenon un- 
der consideration and what were its effects. After 
a considerable amount of such training we may 
fairly expect that a power and a habit of looking 
at things from this point of view will be developed 
which can and will be applied to the affairs of the 
individual's own life. 

As the power of our pupils to trace effects be- 
comes developed by practise they will not merely 
become more adept in following the consequences 
of particular acts to their farthest limits; they 
will also discover, or may be led to discover, cer- 
tain general principles and laws running through 
the whole of human life, determining alike the fate 
of nations and of individuals. They will learn, for 
instance, the meaning and the truth of that which 
they have often heard with skepticism or indiffer- 
ence : ''Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also 
reap." This principle can be clearly seen at work 
in the wars between the states of ancient Greece, 
as in the wars of Napoleon; in fact, in the great 



208 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

majority, perhaps in the end, all of the wars of ag- 
gression.* It can be seen again in the institution of 
slavery as it existed in our own country, an institu- 
tion which was as much a curse to the white man 
who fondly supposed himself to be profiting by it, as 
it was to the negro. It can be seen, once more, in the 
rise and fall of nations. Again they may learn, if 
they scrutinize the record carefully, that we are in a 
world where, broadly speaking, nothing that is 
really worth having can be had for nothing. 

Once more they may be brought to see that human 
society is an organic unity ; that we are all members 
one of another, each being dependent for his vigor 
and happiness as truly upon every other member of 
his community as are the organs of our body upon 
one another. This discovery of the organic nature 
of society can not but broaden the pupil's point of 



* C. Delisle Burns, Political Ideals, quoted in the Chicago 
Tribune. 

"Finally and fatally, Athens would not allow to other 
groups over which she had power, the liberty she had found 
admirable for herself. She was accused, not unjustly, by her 
allies and her enemies, of being a tyrant city. And in the 
fifth book of Thucydides there is written the eternal con- 
demnation of a city which can refuse autonomy to her de- 
pendents when she has prided herself on attaining it for her- 
self. The fall of Athens, in 404 B, C, was directly due, not 
to the liberty she had attained, but to the attempts she made 
to limit her ideal to herself. There may be no moral in his- 
tory; yet one more than half agrees with the Thucydidean 
conception of a Nemesis overtaking all who refuse to others 
what they believe most necessary for themselves. Athens won 
independence and used it; and then built upon her achieve- 
ment an insolent claim to empire and a vulgar ambition for 
wealth." 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 209 

view. He will tend to look upon himself not as 
an isolated unit but as one whose interests can be 
bounded, in the last resort, only by the limits of the 
life of the race. Not merely is his general view of 
life broadened by this insight, the fact forces itself 
upon him that the supposed conflict between egoism 
and altruism is, at many points at least, one of the 
great delusions of life; in consequence he sees that 
in serving the world he is normally serving his own 
largest and permanent personal interests. 

The objection will be urged against the procedure 
recommended in the last paragraphs that it consti- 
tutes "moralizing," and that moralizing does not 
promote morality, and even if it did is in no sense 
a function of history teaching. I answer that mor- 
alizing, as the term is ordinarily understood, in- 
cludes advice and exhortation, which have no more 
business to intrude into moral instruction than into 
history teaching; and that it frequently includes 
either platitudes which do not interest or instruct 
anybody, young or old, and falsehoods about life, 
told for their supposed edifying effect, which have 
no place in any part of the school's work. Moral- 
izing of this kind I certainly do not recommend. 
I insist, furthermore, that on the intellectual side, 
the teacher of every subject is bound to use the con- 
tent of the course as material for developing mental 
power, and that the power to generalize is one of 
the most important elements of mind. 



210 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

I submit that it is part of the record that Ameri- 
can slavery was a failure even from the economic 
point of view; that the fundamental reason why it 
did not produce the results which a near-sighted 
generation imagined it saw was that it did not give 
the negro a "square deal"; that the teacher who 
does not bring out these facts and the reasons for 
them is failing in the most elementary way to give 
his pupils an understanding of one of the leading 
features of American history. I add that a teacher 
who wants his pupils really to see why slavery was 
a failure could do nothing better than to put into 
their hands what may seem to have no relevancy 
to the historical problem, but is nevertheless in a 
manner its key, certain of Miss Tarbell's articles 
in the American Magazine entitled The Golden Rule 
in Business, more particularly those in the issues of 
February and March, 1915. These have recently 
been republished as Chapters VIII and IX of her 
New Ideals in Business, by the Macmillan Company. 

I submit once more that it is part of the record 
that the fall of Athens and the fall of Napoleon 
were due primarily to want of integrity, justice and 
humanity, and that you can not teach the facts and 
dodge this fact. The worshipers of Napoleon ap- 
pear never to see that unless the rest of Europe 
had been a mass of degeneracy Napoleon was bound 
to be brought down, if not at Waterloo, then later. 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 211 

But you can not understand the history of Europe 
from 1789 to 1815 without knowing this. Hence 
again you may not pass it over in silence in the 
history class room. 

Waiving, however, the application to success in 
conquest of the principle that righteousness exalteth 
a nation, let us inquire what are the effects of bad 
faith, oppression and cruelty in the relations of state 
to state upon the characters of the individual citi- 
zens. Is it possible for the rulers of a country 
to practise these things without putting a premium 
upon chicanery, fraud, the many forms of violence 
which the law can not prevent, and inhumanity with 
its hundred arms? Will these not grow and flour- 
ish in such a community? And can such a society 
ever be either happy or noble? The complications 
of the workings of social forces are, indeed; such 
that sometimes there may be barbarism in relation 
to those who live outside the national boundary 
lines, and justice and mutual aid toward those who 
are within. But this is less and less true as we as- 
cend the scale of intelligence. If a man who is not 
stupid by nature ever stops to reflect he is apt in 
the end to apply one principle to all his actions, 
whether it be a bad or a good one. It is precisely 
those who are members of civilized nations, there- 
fore, that must suffer most in their private lives 
from every international crime, and indeed every 
form of political crime of which their rulers have 



212 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

been guilty and in which the people acquiesce. But 
if it is the history teacher's duty to present not 
merely the records of a nation's political institutions 
but also of its life as a whole, why should he omit 
facts that cut so deeply into life as these? 

(3) Developing the Power to Realize the Ab- 
sent. — If taught with the concreteness which is 
possible and desirable — by confining one's task to 
the study of typical institutions and movements and 
general conditions of living, instead of trying to 
say a little about everything that ever happened — 
history may develop that form of the imagination 
by which we put ourselves in the place of others. 
This power, as has been pointed out, is a very im- 
portant factor in morality. Much wrong-doing is 
the child of sodden stupidity, or in other words, 
blindness to what is going on in the lives of others. 
Imagination is the eye by which we can see the ab- 
sent. The history teacher should train it by com- 
pelling his pupils to concrete the abstract, to take 
the general statements of the text or reference book 
and make them mean something in terms of the 
human lives to which they refer. If, for example, 
his class is- studying the Ancient Regime he should 
see that they do not leave the subject until they have 
formed a detailed and vivid picture, on the one hand 
of the gilded Hfe of the court with its emptiness 
and cynicism immediately beneath the surface, on 
the other, of what it meant for the great body of 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 213 

half -starved French peasants who bore the burden 
of its glory upon their bent backs. 

(4) The Cultivation of National Patriotism. — ■ 
History may cultivate a true local and national 
patriotism, (a) It may strengthen our love for our 
city or country in that it shows how the life of 
both the smaller and greater community is built 
upon struggle and sacrifice, and that, in the latter 
case, not merely of a few leaders, but also of thou- 
sands of otherwise more or less commonplace men 
and women. It will strengthen our love in that it 
will show that the community life in which we share 
is not something finished and perfected; that we 
are rather members of a living, growing organism, 
whose nature both in the present and in the future 
depends, for better or worse, upon us equally with 
others. Again it will strengthen our love by mak- 
ing us appreciate the good things by which we are 
surrounded and which are the gifts of our country 
poured with generous hands into our laps. We 
never think of the air we breathe until we have been 
confined in a close room. We never think of the 
value of health until we have been stricken by dis- 
ease. So it is not merely with the material com- 
forts and conveniences of life, but also with the 
institutions and principles upon which all that is 
most precious in our lives is built. It will accord- 
ingly help us to appreciate paved and lighted streets, 
fire and police protection, and the like, if we follow 



214 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

Franklin in his attempt to procure these things for 
colonial Philadelphia. It will help us to appreciate 
the greater gifts, freedom of speech, equality be- 
fore the law, representative government, national 
independence, the separation of church and state, 
the public-school system, to contemplate the lives 
of our ancestors when these things v/ere not, and 
the terrible struggles by which they were acquired. 
Upon this background of the achievements of the 
past the study of history should move us and help 
us to draw up something of a program of the next 
things to be done and inspire us with confidence 
that the efforts which have- brought success in the 
past will bring success- in the future, (b) The pa- 
triotism cultivated by such a study of history will 
be a true, as distinguished from a prejudiced and 
one-sided patriotism, in so far as it is built on a 
foundation sufficiently broad to reveal the excel- 
lences of other communities and other nations be- 
sides our own. 

(5) The Cultivation o£ Racial Patriotism. — 
History may awaken the "enthusiasm of humanity," 
or love for our greater fatherland, in precisely the 
same way as it may cultivate love of country. It 
may disclose to us how large a share of what is 
most valuable in our own lives is due to the con- 
scientious labor and self-sacrificing struggles of pre- 
ceding generations. It may give us a picture of the 
life of the race as that of which the recorded past 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 215 

is only the mere beginning, as a series of tasks of 
which to-day's is one, to be succeeded in its turn 
by that of the next generation. It may awaken us 
to an appreciation of the blessings of civilization. 
It may give us not merely the conception of a con- 
stantly changing race life, but far better than this, 
of a life which in the large embodies our ideal of 
progress and justifies our faith in its continuance. 
Progress has been, on the whole, a fairly con- 
stant element in the life of the peoples of a large 
part of Europe and Asia since the dawn of history 
in Egypt and Babylonia. But the consciousness of 
progress is distinctly modern, dating (roughly) 
from the seventeenth century. For uncounted ages 
the outlook upon life was expressed by the mourn- 
ful words: "The thing that hath been, it is that 
which shall be, and there is no new thing under 
the sun." Notwithstanding the progress made in 
the material sciences and their application to life 
during the past fifty years, a movement which every 
one can see, the idea of progress has not yet taken 
real possession of most men's minds. Few people 
realize how progress will gradually leaven the whole 
of human life by modifying profoundly, not merely 
the material environment, as it has already done, 
but also the structure of society and of human na- 
ture itself. Few people understand its method, 
which consists in one generation climbing upon the 
shoulders of the preceding, whereby it becomes able 



216 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

to see farther than could its predecessors. Few know 
or think about the perils to which it is subjected, or 
have asked themselves what are its most dangerous 
enemies and how they are to be met. Yet definite 
ideas about these subjects are essential as the back- 
ground for the actions of educated men and women, 
and are capable, as are few other beliefs, of steady- 
ing and strengthening the will by inspiring it with 
an assured hope and a calm joy. History, then, 
must introduce its pupils to the conception of human 
progress, making that conception vivid and real to 
them, showing them that it has been a fact, indeed 
the most important single fact in the life of the race, 
showing them in what ways it proceeds, what are 
its causes, and in how far we are justified in be- 
lieving it will continue in the future as it has con- 
tinued in the past. To supply these conceptions his- 
tory must be taught as the history of civilization, 
and the problem of the relation of any people and 
any age to the progress of civilization should be 
the central theme (which does not mean the most 
frequently discussed theme) of the course. 

The Influence of History upon Character De- 
pends on Good Teaching. — ^The study of history, 
as will now be seen, does not exercise its influence 
upon character through the teacher's attaching mor- 
als to incidents as a naughty boy attaches a tin can 
to a dog's tail. The development of character must 
grow naturally and directly out of the story of the 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 217 

life of the race. It will be fostered most effectively 
by good teaching. This means, in the first place, 
vivid presentation. The past, if it is to mean any- 
thing whatever to our pupils, must be recreated in 
their imaginations. "You shall make me feel what 
periods you have lived," is the test that Emerson 
would apply. In order to attain this end we must 
refrain from attempting to cover a large field. If 
we omit half the material presented in the ordinary 
text-book and make the other half correspondingly 
concrete our pupils will carry away from the course 
at once some definite ideas of history and some real 
knowledge of life. Good teaching means, in the 
second place, teaching permeated with the scientific 
spirit, the spirit that seeks everywhere for causes 
and for effects, that compares, and, where it is per- 
missible, generalizes, that is to say, states causal 
relations in as broad terms as the facts warrant. 
Finally, since to see is to ask questions, and to ask 
questions is already to possess a clue, good teaching 
implies a teacher who knows enough of the moral is- 
sues of life, individual and national, to see them when 
they are before his eyes, and who has the ability and 
interest to train his pupils to discover them also. 

The Selection of Material for Class Work. — 
In selecting our material for presentation we should, 
it seems to me, be guided by two principles. They 
do not necessarily lead to precisely the same results, 
^nd a compromise between them will accordingly 



218 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

often be necessary. The first is that we should pre- 
sent primarily those elements in the life of a people 
which are of ftmdamental importance in the life 
of the race. This means we should present first 
the forms in which were embodied the fundamental 
characteristics of the life of man, and the institu- 
tions and conditions which satisfied the basic human 
needs and interests; second, the emergence and 
growth of the factors which constitute the higher 
life, as art, literature and science, and the general 
appreciation of art, literature, nature and science; 
and third, those factors which have contributed to 
or hindered progress. The second is that we should 
exhibit habitually the movements and life of the 
past in the light of what our pupils can see going 
on about them in the American present. As exam- 
ples will serve the land conditions in ancient Baby- 
lonia and modern Mexico; the forms of a republic 
with none of the substance in imperial Rome, a con- 
dition for which we were headed in the United 
States at the beginning of this century. 

Finally, in view of the misunderstandings of what 
is involved in the best form of teaching history for 
the purposes of character building, it may not be 
superfluous to add that the best teaching from every 
point of view involves the strictest adherence to 
truth. But it must always be remembered that truth 
involves balance. The undoubtedly accui*ate de- 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 219 

scription of Carlyle's quarrels with his wifei pre- 
sented by his biographer creates not a true impres- 
sion of his married life as a whole, but a false one, 
as pink cheeks render a statue not more life-like, but 
less so. The history teacher without a sense for per- 
spective is lost. 

Literature as a Picture of the Real World. — 

In examining the contributions which the study of 
literature can make to the work of moral instruc- 
tion, it is necessary at the outset to recognize clearly 
that the favorite forms of literature, the novel, the 
drama and the narrative poem, are essentially imi- 
tative arts, as much so as are painting and sculpture. 
Their chief subject-matter is the life of man, the 
manifold relations of human beings to one another. 
To be interesting they must be believed by the reader 
to represent real persons acting in keeping with the 
characters with which they have been endowed. 
They must furthermore be believed to represent 
truthfully the laws of life, that is, the consequences 
of actions, near and remote, precisely as they would 
occur under the described conditions in the real 
world. *T remember," writes Emerson in his Essay 
on Books, "when some peering eyes of boys discov- 
ered that the oranges hanging on the boughs of an 
orange tree in a gay piazza were tied to the twigs 
by thread. I fear 'tis so with the novelist's pros- 



220 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

perities." Art of this kind is bad art, and the only 
readers such tales interest are those who do not 
discover the trick. 

Literature, to be sure, like painting and sculpture, 
has its conventions ; but these in each case have their 
source for the most part in the limitations placed 
upon the artist by the nature of his materials. Apart 
from this, where literature appears to separate it- 
self from life, it is only surrendering microscopic 
accuracy in order to gain a more complete verisimili- 
tude in the large effects. Take, for example, the 
use of poetry in the drama. In the first place, un- 
der the stress of great emotions the language of 
the most commonplace men assumes an elevation 
of tone essentially poetic in nature. But far more 
important than this is the fact that beauty of lan- 
guage stirs in the reader or spectator an otherwise 
almost unattainable response to the emotions ex- 
pressed or portrayed, and in so doing creates in him 
a realizing sense of the meaning of the experience 
presented. If you would appreciate the extent to 
which this statement holds- read a selection from 
Shakespeare. Then require your pupils to state ex- 
actly the same ideas in prose. The latter exercise, 
if conscientiously performed, will give you all the 
"facts." But the original places you inside the per- 
son, as it were, and you find yourself looking out 
upon his world with his eyes and responding to it 
with his feelings. 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 221 

These statements hold for what is called idealistic 
literature as completely as for realistic. Realistic 
literature is sometimes defined as that which repre- 
sents life as it is, idealistic as that which represents 
life as we should like to have it. But, as we have 
just seen, no one is interested in oranges tied to the 
branches of trees. In great literature as in life 
the tree may be known by its fruits. Accordingly 
idealistic literature that is really good art takes us 
into a better world, not by running away from the 
la>vs of this world, but rather by the principle upon 
which the characters and facts are selected out of 
the material which the world affords. It chooses 
to portray habitually the more interesting, and, in 
large part (though never exclusively), the more ad- 
mirable types of men or actions; while realism, in 
the narrower sense of the term, selects its subject- 
matter from the more commonplace or even the 
most insignificant or even disgusting. Shakespeare, 
the great idealist, is at the same time the greatest 
realist. On the one hand, his leading characters, 
even the immoral ones, are striking personalities; 
they are placed in situations which are significant 
— the crises of human life. .On the other hand, their 
words, their actions, their failure to act, follow 
strictly, in every instance, from their inner nature 
when taken in relation to the circumstances in which 
they are placed ; the workings of their minds follow 
laws which the psychology of to-day is, in many 



222 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

cases, just beginning to formulate. Even the fair- 
ies, the witches and the ghosts in Shakespeare — 
and in all good literature — are real beings, conform- 
ing to the laws of life so completely that for us 
who know them they are more substantial than most 
of the shadows that flit past us in the phantasma- 
goria called real life. 

Literature Compared with History as a Means 
of Training in Moral Thoughtfulness.— The ef- 
fects of literature upon character turn upon this 
relation of literature to life. If it presents essen- 
tially accurate pictures of life, it is necessarily, 
whether by intention or not, a revelation of the 
real nature of right and wrong in conduct, of good 
and bad in character. Its function as an instrument 
of moral instruction is thus identical in essence with 
that of history. In fact, it can perform the first 
three oflices of history, as enumerated above, 
broadly speaking, as well as history itself. On the 
other hand, it can do certain things which history 
either can not do at all or else does less effectively. 

Some Advantages of Literature over History : 
(1) It May Exhibit the Lav^s of Life with 
Greater Clearness.— Literature may exhibit the 
structure and the laws of life even more clearly and 
completely than history. One reason is that it is 
free to confine itself to the presentation of tenden- 
cies, whereas in the portrayals of history the ten- 
dency may be submerged or concealed by a chance 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 223 

combination of circumstances. In U Assommoir 
Zola pictures the usual results of drunkenness and 
not merely the usual ones, those which follow neces- 
sarily under ordinary conditions. But it is a fact 
that a London physician of the eighteenth century 
once made five hundred dollars by being drunk. 
The story is told in Hill's edition of Boswell's Life 
of Johnson, Vol. II, page 314, note 5, as follows: 
*'Dr. Fordyce, who sometimes drank a good deal, 
was summoned to a lady patient when he was con- 
scious that he had had too much wine. Feeling 
her pulse, and finding himself unable to count its 
beats, he muttered, 'Drunk, by G — .' Next morning 
a letter from her was put into his hands. 'She too 
well knew,' she wrote, 'that he had discovered the 
unfortunate condition in which she had been, and 
she entreated him to keep the matter secret, in con- 
sideration of the enclosed' (a hundred-pound bank- 
note)." 

As "fortune brings in some boats that are not 
steered," so some foolish parents and teachers have 
put into execution absurd systems of education and 
the product has been excellent. But in The Ordeal 
of Richard Feverel Meredith presents a typical il- 
lustration of the results which may be expected from 
obstinate attachment on the part of a pedant to a 
Procrustean pedagogical program. Thus literature, 
when written by a man of wide experience and 
penetration, may succeed more completely than his- 



224 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

tory in taking us beneath the surface and revealing 
to us the forces which really mold human life. 

The power of literature to represent the funda- 
mental realities of human existence more completely 
and accurately than does history turns partly, as we 
have just seen, upon the fact that it can keep chance 
at arm's length in so far as is necessary to show 
the fundamental causal relations which are in oper- 
ation. It is due equally to the fact that literature 
can represent and reveal the inner side of life, espe- 
cially the world of feelings and desires, i. e., the 
world of values, far more effectively and completely 
than history can. History, at any rate as ordinarily 
written, deals in the main only with externals-, with 
what people have said and done. History can tell 
us that the French court of the seventeenth and 
eighteenth centuries was fabulously rich and had 
at its disposal all the culture of the day. But it 
can not, or at least commonly does not, tell us what 
were the feelings of those who lived within this 
circle. Were they really happy? Did they find hfe 
full of interesting and significant tasks? Did they 
find materials upon which to build "admiration, hope 
and love"? If not, did life seem empty or distaste- 
ful to them? Perhaps history could answer more 
of such questions than it actually does. But most 
of the histo^^ical works that are likely to be placed 
in the hands of our pupils care for none of these 
things. Probably in the majority of cases the requi- 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 225 

site material does not exist. Madame de Maintenon 
has left us in a letter to her niece an impressive de- 
scription of the weariness and ennui that darkened 
the days of the parasites who thronged the court 
of the ''Grand Monarch." But for the supreme pic- 
ture of black pessimism yoked with the possession 
of power, wealth, the assurance of fame, and all 
the bits of colored glass for which the average man 
will barter his soul, we must go, not* to the pages 
of the historian, but to the last act of Macbeth. 

(2) It Can Reveal the Potentialities of Human 
Nature. — History, as a rule, must, or as a matter 
of fact, does, confine itself to what actually was 
at a given time and place; but literature can deal 
also with what is possible. It does this by showing 
the existence of latent capacities in human nature 
and the conditions under which they are repressed 
or liberated. In James Lane Allen's King Solomon 
of Kentucky, in the story of Number 23 in the Tale 
of Two Cities, in Silas Marner we see how the ap- 
parently worthless or narrow and forbidding char- 
acter may possess potentialities of devotion or hero- 
ism which have been paralyzed or which have never 
before found their adequate stimulus. Such revela- 
tions arouse or strengthen confidence in human na- 
ture, help us to realize that it is often not what it 
seems to be on the surface, that the attempt to make 
it better may be successful. When we come to think 
about the race in terms of its highest possibilities. 



226 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

our desire to serve our fellows will be strengthened. 
On the other hand, the study of such characters 
as Fred Vincy or Tito Melema shows us the way 
downward, either to moral mediocrity or to crime ; 
and in showing us the possibility and the cause will 
help to put us on our guard. 

(3) It Deals with the Concrete. — Literature 
deals with the concrete in a much greater degree 
than history can. The concrete is far more impress- 
ive to most minds than are the abstractions of the 
historian. The bravery and devotion of the three 
hundred at Thermopylae arouse less enthusiastic 
admiration than the bravery and devotion of Num- 
ber 22) in the Tale of Two Cities. The story of the 
failure of Macbeth burns into our soul the truth 
that the wages of sin is death more effectively than 
the annals of the fall of Athens. Furthermore, 
since literature deals with the concrete it exercises 
the imagination more continuously and trains it 
more thoroughly. This is because there is constant 
necessity, in order to read understandingly, to enter 
with insight into the hopes and fears, the successes 
and failures, the joys and sorrows of other lives 
than our own, and, in the longer narrations, to do 
this in a consecutive way. In this manner may be 
developed the power and the habit of putting one's 
self into the place of others, which, as we have seen, 
lies at the very foundation of the moral life. 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 227 

The Qualifications of a Good Teacher of Lit- 
erature. — As in history, the condition of obtain- 
ing the best fruits is good teaching. But good 
teaching means something more than the possession 
of a certain technique and of a store of information 
about hterature such as the cramming schools for 
the Ph. D., or indeed, the majority of college or 
university undergraduate classes demand — and ob- 
tain. The essential fact about literature is that it 
holds the mirror up to nature. Accordingly the 
fundamental aim in the teaching of literature should 
be to help the pupil build up in his own mind in 
clear, vivid and, as far as may be, complete form, 
pictures of life as the author himself saw them. 
Secondly it should help the pupil to determine how 
far they actually represent life. These aims call 
for a different set of questions and a different di- 
rection of attention from that which will be found 
in the average literature class, whether in high 
school or college. Our pupils ask for bread — they 
are hungry for knowledge about life, and they need, 
and know they need, such knowledge. But we give 
them in its place philology, or an account of some 
one's influence on the author. What is this but a 
stone? It goes without saying that if we are to 
understand the writer we must understand his vo- 
cabulary. We must know something, also, about 
his life and the circumstances which made him 



228 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

what he was. But in high school and college such 
knowledge is merely a means to an end, and should 
be shown its place when it tries to play the lead- 
ing role. The study of literature will give moral 
power, and to most persons intellectual power, only 
in so far as it opens windows that look out upon 
Hfe. 

This aim calls also, as the reader will not have 
failed to observe, for a different kind of teacher 
from the ideal of the Doctor of Philosophy factory. 
It requires for its realization a teacher who is not 
a mere bookworm, who is not bowed down by the 
weight of a mass of philological, grammatical and 
historical erudition. It demands rather one who, 
whatever else he knows or is ignorant of, knows 
life, and that not primarily by hearsay from the 
printed page, but through actual experience and 
sympathetic contact with human beings. And this 
knowledge of life must include — as it will for any 
well-balanced person of wide observation and keen 
power of analysis — a knowledge of its moral issues, 
since the blind can not teach other people to see. 

The Place of History and Literature in a Sys- 
tem of Moral Instruction. — The careful reader 
will have observed that the study of history and 
literature exercises its influence upon character al- 
most entirely through the light it throws upon the 
second of the three great problems of moral instruc- 
tion Chapter XII, page 15.7). Neither history nor 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 229 

literature is well adapted for serving as the basis 
of the direct study of what is right or wrong. The 
teacher of either subject would make a mistake in 
devoting any time to discussing such a question as 
whether the assassination of Julius Csesar was jus- 
tifiable. In the first place it is senseless to clutter 
up the few short hours at our disposal with the 
discussion of a subject so remote from ordinary 
life as that of political murder. In the second place 
this is neither an historical nor a literary problem, 
and history and literature, I have insisted, exercise 
their moral influence in their capacity as history or 
literature. It is the part of these disciplines, for 
example, to make us understand the character of 
Julius Caesar as a whole, and the characters and 
motives of the men who killed him, together with 
the effects of this assassination in their varied rami- 
fications. The insight into these things unquestion- 
ably supplies invaluable data for the solution of the 
problem whether the assassins did right. But the 
question whether under any circumstances political 
assassination can be justified, and if so, whether this 
was one of the permissible occasions, belongs, if 
anywhere, in the study of applied ethics. 

Again, the two subjects under consideration will 
do little to aid us in the struggle for self-control. 
They may indeed inspire us through examples, and 
this is very important. A writer like George Eliot, 
who deals habitually with the growth and decay of 



230 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

character, may supply some valuable suggestions in 
the technique of self -conquest, but these will appear 
incidentally. On the whole, then, the assertion is 
justified that the chief function of history and lit- 
erature in the development of character is to reveal 
to the student the nature of right and wrong as 
such. And this, as we have seen, is the most impor- 
tant function of any form of moral instruction. 

Civics: Its Principal Aims.— Civics, dealing as 
it does with only a single area of moral activity, 
is less universal in its appeal than history or litera- 
ture. But, as if in comxpensation, it is, when prop- 
erly taught, the most effective of all studies for 
awakening the love of righteousness in its own do- 
main, and for guiding the intelligence in the attain- 
ment of its ideals. The question of questions in 
civics, taught as the best authorities on the subject 
are now unanimous in recommending, is: What 
good does government, whether local or national, 
do the child, his family and his fellows in the com- 
munity? Hence, what difference does it make 
whether he lives under good government or bad? 
The answer must be stated not merely in terms of 
his future (though this may not be neglected), but 
primarily in terms of his present needs and inter- 
ests as a child. As Mr. A. W. Dunn has pointed 
out, children "have the same civic interests that 
motive all community action and that are the foun- 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 231 

dation of all community arrangements and institu- 
tions, including government. Every child has an 
interest of some kind in his physical v^^ell-being, in 
his personal safety and that of his home and family 
possessions, in his father's occupation or business 
(perhaps even in small business enterprises of his 
own), in the appearance of his neighborhood and 
in social activities (at least in play). These are the 
very things for which government exists." In so 
far as civics deals with the child's future we must 
never get beyond issues the importance of which 
he can at least in part appreciate. For these reasons 
the local unit will be given the most extended treat- 
ment. 

The first and chief aim of civic instruction should 
be to create a realizing sense of the nature and value 
of the ends for the attainment of which govern- 
ment exists. The second is to give an acquaintance 
with the agencies through which these ends are 
brought into existence. Such knowledge, among 
other things, increases the sense of value through 
the concreteness which it lends to the idea of the 
end. Most of even the best text-books stop at this 
point. But w^hen they do so they omit a subject of 
very great importance, if the purpose of the work 
is to train for good citizenship. A third division, 
then, is necessary. It seeks to answer the question : 
What can I do to maintain, and if possible to im- 
prove, these institutions, and what must I refrain 



232 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

from doing if I am not to injure them? There 
is no age from the first grade, or even the kinder- 
garten, where some kind of work for the city is not 
possible. The child should be trained to see his 
opportunities, or responsibilities, if you prefer so 
to call them. And he should be so guided that he 
will act in accordance with his vision. He must be 
prepared for the more fundamental future duties 
as well as the present ones, since the alternative is 
probably now or never. From this point of view 
our program must contain such topics as taxation, 
what it means to be an intelligent and conscientious 
voter, and what duties we owe to our city officials. 
By the last are meant such things as recognition of 
good work and active and intelligent support in 
their conflict with ignorance, indifference, corrup- 
tion and selfishness. 

The life of society can be brought before the 
pupil not merely through text-books but also through 
his own investigations. He may, with suitable guid- 
ance, examine for himself the work of the health, 
police, fire and street departments; he may learn 
through his own eyes what the parks, the schools, 
the city hospitals, etc., are doing for the benefit of 
himself and his fellow citizens. He may attend the 
meetings of the board of aldermen and be shown 
by the mayor with what duties his days are filled. 
He can not indeed do all this work himself. But 
he can make his investigations in 3ome one field, 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 233 

and obtain his information about the others from 
the reports of his classmates, to each of whom, as 
to himself, will have been assigned a special topic. 
The sense of reality derived from his own excur- 
sions will extend to the descriptions supplied by his 
fellow workers. The community is a true labora- 
tory in civics and should be used as such by the 
schools. 

Its Results.— The result of this procedure 
should be a sense of the value of each of the in- 
stitutions of civil society and a sense of the value 
of the cooperative spirit upon which they rest. The 
pupil will realize himself to be a member of an or- 
ganic unity, a great whole in whose fate, for better 
or worse, his own is inextricably intertwined, whose 
life is immeasurably greater and more enduring 
than his own, whose present form is due to the 
struggles and sacrifices of thousands, which is ad- 
vancing, though no doubt all too fitfully, through 
the centuries in self-consciousness, in completeness 
of adaptation of means to ends, in the amount and 
dignity of the satisfactions which it affords. What 
is realized and valued will be loved; and if loved 
will be served, where there is insight into the op- 
portunities and requirements of the situation. Civ- 
ics can attain a concreteness in its picture of what 
has actually been accomplished and what still lies 
unaccomplished within the range of our powers, 
which has been denied to the study of any other 



234 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

department of the moral life. It may therefore 
serve as a model to which these other departments 
should strive to approximate.* 

Local and national patriotism may be still further 
developed, steadied and guided, in the high school 
and perhaps in the eighth grade, by the study of 
v^hat our contemporaries in America have done dur- 
ing the past generation to make our community life 
healthier, sounder and happier. Here yoi; have the 
union of a cause, whose beneficent effects can in 
many cases be easily realized, and a man or men, 
a leader for whom the adolescent boy is always 
blindly or consciously seeking. The incorporation 
of this feature into a course in civics will give it 
variety and life, and introduce new and powerful 
motives of his own. It is described in Chapter XV. 

The Literature of Civic Instruction. — It will 
not be necessary for me to attempt to prescribe how 
a course thus conceived should be conducted, be- 
cause at length we have both text-books adapted to 
this end, and easily accessible description of aims, 
methods and materials. As far as the first two main 
divisions of a complete course in civics are con- 
cerned, the best manuals conform generally to the 
type of Mr. A. W. Dunn's The Community and the 

*"I would have you day by day fix your eyes upon the 
greatness of Athens, until you have become filled with the 
love of her. And when you are impressed with the spectacle 
of her glory reflect that this empire has been acquired by men 
who knew their duty and had the courage to do it." Pericles, 
in the Funeral Oration. 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 235 

Citizen — the more closely, I think, the better. Sug- 
gestions for the treatment of the third part — what 
can the pupil do and what must he refrain from do- 
ing for the sake of his city — will be found in Bulle- 
tin 23, and the book by Miss Hill, referred to imme- 
diately below. For accounts of methods the teacher 
may consult the Bulletin of the United States Bu- 
reau of Education, Number 2 2 (1915), entitled The 
Teaching of Community Civics, by Messrs. Bar- 
nard, Carrier, Dunn and Kingsley; Bulletin Num- 
ber J/ (1915), Civic Education in Elementary 
Schools as Illustrated in Indianapolis, by Mr. 
Dunn; and the Teaching of Civics, by Mabel Hill 
(Riverside Education Monograph, Houghton Mif- 
flin). The first and last of these publications con- 
tain a carefully selected and not too lengthy 
bibliography on aims and methods, and valuable 
directions with regard to the location of materials. 
The following references may also prove service- 
able : J. L. Barnard, The Teaching of Civics in Ele- 
mentary and Secondary Schools, National Educa- 
tion Association, 1913, pp. 84-90; C. W. Will- 
iams, Patriotism as an Instrument for Moral In- 
struction, Religious Education, Vol. 2, pp. 58-63. 



CHAPTER XV 

MORAL INSTRUCTION THROUGH BIOGRAPHY 

Some Advantages o£ History over Literature 
as a Means of Moral Instruction. — While, as we 
saw in the last chapter, literature has many advan- 
tages over history as a source of material for the 
study of life, on the other hand history, in its turn, 
may make its own unique contributions to the sub- 
ject. 

(1) Its pictures of life more easily impress them- 
selves as true upon the minds of certain pupils, 
especially of the matter-of-fact type, than do those 
of literature. Of the latter, some boys and girls 
will forever be suspicious. 

(2) History deals with more phases of life than 
does literature. Literature concerns itself almost 
wholly with leisure, to the exclusion of those busi- 
ness or professional activities which occupy the 
greater part of almost every adult's waking hours. 
The exceptions to this statement are confined al- 
most exclusively to the life of adventure. In the 
main it ignores civic interests almost as completely 
as it does the business and professional life. 

(3) History takes us up to the summit of the 

. 236 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 237 

mountain whence we can see our own life as a part 
of the hfe of the race. It famiHarizes us with this, 
one of the most impressive of conceptions, and may 
make it enter into our very Hfe blood and thus serve 
as a force to shape alike our thoughts, our feelings 
and our actions. 

(4) The important conception of human progress 
is ignored by literature, and for the most part must 
be ignored by it, since it is of the very essence of 
literature that it portrays the individual life. It is 
noteworthy that very many literary men as well as 
professional students of literature have taken a pes- 
simistic attitude toward life, because for them "the 
thing which hath been it is that which shall be." On 
the other hand the attitude of modern historians and 
men of science is distinctly optimistic. The contrast 
in this respect between James Russell Lowell and 
Asa Gray in their later years is quite typical. 

(5) The feelings of gratitude and "piety" (in the 
sense of the Latin pietas, as affectionate and rever- 
ential gratitude toward a benefactor), and the re- 
sultant desire to do something to make the world 
better can be aroused toward historical characters as 
they never can be toward the characters of fiction. 
These feelings, going out to the known and even the 
unnamed heroes of our country and of the race, 
make a powerful appeal to national and race patriot- 
ism in generous natures. 

(6) Whatever may be the abstract possibilities, 



238 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

the fact is that training in the use of the conception 
of cause and effect in interpreting human Hfe may 
be obtained in considerable abundance in the history 
work, while there will be on the whole less oppor- 
tunity for it in the study of literature. 

Biography Combines Most of the Advantages 
of History and Literature. — The conclusions to 
be drawn from these facts are, first the obvious one, 
that history must be allowed to supplement litera- 
ture, as literature must supplement history. A sec- 
ond conclusion, equally important, is that a synthesis 
of most that is best in literature and history may 
be found in the field of biography. If so, the study 
of biography should form a part of the curriculum 
of every school, elementary or advanced, that would 
train its pupils to understand life. 

Biography appeals at once and to all classes of 
pupils as true, and thus produces in many minds not 
merely conviction but also a degree of realization 
which, for them, literature can not supply. It pre- 
sents the business or professional life as literature 
does not, and as even history does and probably can 
only to a slight degree. It is a part of the 
story of the progress of the race. It usually has as 
its background the history of the day and thus pro- 
duces some of that mass effect which gives impress- 
iveness to the march of great events. As against 
literature it often lacks inwardness — the power of 
revealing to the reader the inner life of the man, the 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 239 

part that for him really counted. But this is by no 
means true of all biographies. As compared with 
history and literature biography has of course cer- 
tain limitations of its own and should, therefore, 
never be allowed to replace them. On the other 
hand, given as an introduction to the systematic 
study of life it will enjoy an advantage possessed by 
neither, that of being in the hands of a teacher who 
is teaching the subject primarily for the sake of the 
insight into life that may be obtained from it, in- 
stead of being consigned to the tender mercies of 
one who has a fixed number of periods or of authors 
to cover before the close of the semester, and who, 
even when not hurried, may look upon the moral in- 
fluences of the subject as being at most a mere by- 
product. The difficulty of getting the moral values 
emphasized under such circumstances Is well shown 
by the parallel case of English training through the 
study of Latin. The teachers of Latin could train 
their pupils in English, no doubt, but In the main, 
notwithstanding the great pressure often exerted to 
that end, they do not do so. Even In the elementary 
school where one teacher has charge of all subjects, 
moral thought fulness Is more likely to be developed 
in a course which aims definitely and primarily to 
develop It than in one where this aim is obscured by 
a cloud of other Issues. 

Some Specific Aims of the Study of Biography. 
' — The broad aims of biographical study have al- 



240 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

ready been stated at sufficient length in the discus- 
sion of related topics. But a few specific aims should 
be noted for which biography supplies better mate- 
rial than either history or literature. Foremost 
among these are the laws of individual success and 
failure, including success and failure in the more 
conventional and superficial senses of these terms. 
Because "outer" success does not represent the deep- 
est or most important thing in life it is not for that 
reason to be despised. The study of "successful" 
careers may be subsumed under moral thoughtful- 
ness through the perfectly legitimate conception of 
a duty to self. 

A course in biography can do still other things 
for the education of the moral judgment and the 
character of the pupils. It can call attention to what 
appears to be an indubitable fact, namely, that mor- 
ality is a normal accompaniment— not, indeed, of 
fox-like cunning, but of most forms of intellectual 
strength.* It, more effectively than any other school 
study, can lead the pupil to see and realize that right 
doing involves not weakness of will but on the con- 
trary, strength. And that as in Lincoln, heroic 
strength is compatible not only with a broad spirit 
of altruism but also with exquisitely sensitive sym- 
pathies, warm affections, and a charity and a power 
of forgiveness that may make their possessor loved 
and revered even by his enemies in the bitterness of 



* See F. A. Woods, Popular Science Monthly, vol. 6Z, p. 516. 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 241 

defeat. It may train our pupils also to discover 
how difficult it is to read the motives of our 
fellow men and thus pass judgment upon them; to 
respect conceptions of duty which are different from 
their own (for example, for us of the North, those 
of General Robert E. Lee), and to take the proper 
attitude toward the faults of good men. 

How to deal with the last of these problems may 
be learned from a citizen of the second Christian 
century. In dealing with a discreditable episode 
in the life of the Roman general Fabius, Plutarch 
writes : "Here, we must confess, ambition seems to 
have overcome him. To make it appear to the world 
that he had taken Tarentum by force and his own 
prowess, and not by treachery, he commanded his 
men to kill the Brutians (one of whom had be- 
trayed the city) before all others. . . . Such 
proceedings were very different from those of Mar- 
cellus on a like occasion, which, indeed, very much 
set off in the eyes of the world the clemency and 
humanity of the latter, as appears in the account of 
his life." Nothing is here extenuated any more than 
it is set down in malice. But the fact is emphasized 
that where the hero failed others have succeeded. 

On the other hand, one may proceed along a dif- 
ferent line. The whole of the character may be em- 
phasized as against any single flaw. No attempt 
should be made to hide the flaw, if anything, it is 
better to adopt the opposite policy. I have known 



242 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

of a boy who was seriously injured by the fact that 
in school Franklin was held up to him as a model 
of perfection. On the other hand, there should be 
no exaggeration or magnifying of small offenses, as 
is the tendency with books bearing the title, *'The 
Real So-and-So." They should be treated rather 
as sorrowful facts in a world to which perfection 
has been denied. But they should at the same time 
be placed in their proper perspective, and not for 
one moment allowed to obscure the rest of a char- 
acter which, as in the case of Franklin, may be 
adorned with a thousand excellences, some of them 
of the rarest nature.* 

The Statement of Purposes to Be Made to the 
Class. — The statement of purposes with which 
the teacher opens the course will correspond exactly 
to those which he himself has in view in conducting 
it. We shall tell our pupils that we want to teach 
them how to study human nature ; and that, in addi- 
tion, we want to help them to understand life, its 
duties, its privileges, its dangers, and its wealth of 
good things for the mind prepared to receive them. 
Many men — shall we say most men? — make more 
or less of a failure of life. They themselves suffer, 
they make others suffer; they degrade themselves, 
they degrade those about them. We, as teachers, 
want to help the members of this generation to do a 



*See Gulick, Mind and Work, ch. ii; reprinted from the 
World's Work for July, 1908. 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 243 

little better than many of the members of our own 
have done. This does not mean that we consider 
ourselves complete masters of the art of life, any 
more than the fact that we teach history or science 
means that we know everything that is to be known 
about these disciplines. We merely claim, in virtue 
of being a little older than our pupils, to have 
learned enough about life — too often through sad 
experiences — to be able to set them thinking, and 
perha.ps to help them find an answer to some of their 
questions. We assume, then, that they want to learn 
to distinguish right from wrong, to gain the power 
to watch intelligently both right and wrong conduct 
in operation, and to be convinced of the existence 
of unselfish devotion in the world that actually sur- 
rounds them. 

Methods of Conducting the Course.— Many 
courses in biography try to deal with the lives of a 
large number of persons. A character will be as- 
signed for study to each member of the class. 
At any given recitation tv/o or three members read 
papers upon the persons assigned to them. These 
papers are then thrown open for discussion by the 
class. Obviously the discussion can not carry ac- 
quaintanceship with the character farther because 
the other pupils have no data. The paper itself is 
almost certain to deal with the externals of the 
man's life — not merely because of the inexperience 
of the writer, but because they must be told as the 



244 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

prerequisite to anything more fundamental, and 
then they crowd out everything else. The result is 
the character remains an abstraction without power 
to enkindle life. Furthermore, a procession of 
heroic figures passing before the pupils, two or three 
per day, once or twice a week, through a semester or 
a year, is likely to produce the effect of an overdose 
of candy. Far better results can be obtained from 
a more intimate acquaintance with two or three 
characters. The irreducible minimum for the study 
of any one life is sixteen to twenty recitation pe- 
riods. 

Two methods may be suggested of conducting 
such a recitation as we have here in mind. In both, 
one or two chapters are assigned as subject-matter. 
In one method of procedure the discussion of each 
chapter will be introduced by the reading of a writ- 
ten outline prepared by a member of the class. His 
classmates will have read the chapter and may be 
questioned if it is deemed advisable about its leading 
contents. The other method is to require each pu- 
pil to write in advance a list of from eight to twelve 
questions (the upper limit should be set pretty def- 
initely by the teacher for each class exercise), cor- 
rect answers to which would cover all the important 
points in the chapter. This is excellent training in 
perspective, an utterly neglected but most important 
part of education. In class, the pupils read their 
questions, these are criticized and put into such form 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 245 

as to constitute, in their totality, a good list, and 
each question, in its final shape, is written on the 
blackboard. The answer is then called for. Experi- 
ence shows that a pupil who has formulated a good 
question has learned the answer without much or 
any additional study. The advantage of the first 
method is that it leaves more time for the 
discussion (for vv^hich see below). The pa- 
per can be corrected by the teacher before 
it is brought into class, and thus recitation 
time saved. This can not be done v/ith the ques- 
tions. The advantage of the second method is that 
the class as a whole obtains, perforce, an excellent 
knowledge of the contents of the chapter. On the 
whole this advantage outweighs the other consid- 
eration. It is therefore recommended as the method 
to be employed. 

Perhaps it may not be superfluous to illustrate this 
method by presenting a list of questions showing the 
kind that are required, and that, after possibly two 
or three months of exercise on the part of the pupils, 
can be obtained. They are based upon that portion 
of Franklin's Autobiography describing his first 
visit to London. The reader will observe that the 
answers to some must be put together from several 
different passages. 

1. What were Franklin's relations with Ralph? 

2. Give an account of Franklin's daily work. 

3. What is said about his physical strength and 



246 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

skill, and what advantages did he gain from 
them ? 

4. What were his relations with his fellow em- 
ployees, including his influence upon them ? 

5. What did he do with his wages? 

6. What friends did he acquire in London, and 
how? 

7. What are we told about his reading habits 
while in London? 

8. What did he get out of his eighteen months' 
stay in London ? 

Whatever the method employed, time miust be 
set aside for discussion by the class. In addition the 
teacher will explain those matters which the pupils 
lack the data to understand or to see the bearing 
of; will make them realize, by the presentation of 
supplementary material, whatever the book may 
have left abstract or remote; will see that they form, 
by means of proper reviews, a definite and coherent 
picture of the life and character as a whole ; and will 
train their practical sagacity and moral insight by 
setting their minds to work upon the data concern- 
ing the conduct of life which the book supplies. 

Thus in studying the life of Lincoln the class 
should understand some of the reasons other than 
the most obvious one why Lincoln hated slavery as 
he did ; why, for instance, he was convinced that the 
Union could not endure half slave, half free. Other- 
wise they will not understand the extraordinary 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 247 

transformation he underwent after the repeal of the 
Missouri Compromise. Franklin's Autobiography, 
on the other hand, calls for no examination of the 
origin of the French and Indian War because he had 
nothing to do either with starting it or bringing it to 
an end. His relations to the war are accordingly per- 
fectly intelligible v/ithout this information. Again, 
the class should be made to realize what it meant, 
socially and otherwise, for Franklin to take the pop- 
ular side in the Pennsylvania Colonial Assembly. 

A systematic view of a man's activities can be 
obtained from time to time by requiring the pupils 
to write papers on such subjects as the following: 
Give an account of Franklin's activities as a legisla- 
tor (in the colonial period), showing his devotion 
to the cause of the people. What did he do for the 
city of Philadelphia? Explain his business success. 
For an illustration of the fourth item (above) let 
us turn to the record of a member of our own gen- 
eration. In Up from Slavery, Mr. Booker T. Wash- 
ington wrote (p. 203) : ^'I no longer cherish ill feel- 
ing for those who advocate measures that tend to 
oppress the black man." In order to understand 
the man who can make such a statement, if for no 
other reason, the class should consider such ques- 
tions as the following : Why did he drive out the ill 
feeling, which under similar circumstances would 
have dominated the entire life of most of us? How 
did he drive it out ? 



248 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

The Immediate Aim. — The immediate aim 
which the teacher must set before himself in this 
work is to cause to grow in each pupil's mind a 
vivid and accurate picture of the man himself, seen 
in the surroundings and conditions in which he lived. 
This picture must be a picture of the real man — I 
mean, the inner man, a picture of how and what he 
thought and believed and dreamed, hoped and 
feared, loved and hated, felt and purposed. His 
outer acts, what men saw, are of value chiefly as 
they are made to throw light upon this inner life. 
This life, when fully apprehended and realized, is 
the thing that will create wisdom and awaken moral 
enthusiasms. The teacher must be careful not to 
ruin the effect by cheap moralizing and exhorting. 
The aim here set forth has been achieved in a bril- 
liant way by Gamaliel Bradford, Jr., in his studies 
of the life of General Robert E. Lee, and in his Con- 
federate and Union Portraits, which, as may be re- 
membered, first appeared in the pages of the Atlan- 
tic Monthly, These may well serve as a model. 

The Place of the Course in the Curriculum. — 
There will be no difficulty in finding a place for a 
course of this kind in the elementary school. For 
instance, it would probably form the most effective 
part of the work in history. In the high school, 
also, several possibilities are open. In the Uni- 
versity of Wisconsin High School, for exam- 
ple, as in a number of other high schools, the 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 249 

study of biography forms a part of the freshman 
course in EngHsh. It supplies this course with ma- 
terial of the best kind with which to work. On the 
other side, there is the great advantage that this 
arrangement permits the introduction of work in 
morals into the school without "overburdening the 
already overburdened curriculum." 

In the University of Wisconsin High 'School the 
work in biography has replaced the study of a book 
of selections in English literature. In other words, 
it counts as "literature." The remaining three days 
of the week are occupied as follows : Two for the 
study of grammar and form work; the third for ex- 
pression work, using the material supplied by the 
biographies. Thus the teacher will read a paragraph 
and send the class to the board to write the gist of it. 
Excellent sets of papers have been obtained on such 
subjects as: What characteristics Lincoln showed 
in his face; Life on the Southern plantation (data 
from Booker T. Washington's Up from Slavery) ; 
Franklin's or Lincoln's education of himself; What 
Franklin did for Philadelphia; Why Lincoln's 
friends believed he would make a good president; 
Life on the frontier in the early part of the nine- 
teenth century. 

A Course in American Biography. — For Amer- 
ican children the biographies of Americans should 
be used, because the American boy or girl can under- 
stand better and enter more completely into the life 



250 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

of those who have lived in his own country and have 
dealt with an environment, material and human, 
in many respects, at least, like his own. If the lead- 
ers of our past national life are selected for study, 
biography and history can be made to supplement 
each other most effectively in the eighth grade, or 
to prepare for history if biography is given in the 
seventh grade. As a freshman high-school study, it 
serves, to a certain extent, as a (much needed) re- 
view. For the reasons first mentioned our contem- 
poraries are to be preferred to the dead, in so far as 
it is possible to find the necessary material. Again, 
a course which keeps within the national boundary 
lines possesses a certain unity which is favorable to 
apprehension and the growth of interest. It also 
tends to develop the spirit of patriotism and to show 
us how our patriotism, municipal, state and national, 
may exhibit itself in action. 

An excellent course of seventy- two recitation pe- 
riods for the first year of the high school could be 
constructed as follows: (1) Benjamin Franklin, 
Autobiography. A school edition must be used. 
That published by Ginn and Company is perhaps the 
best. The teacher will use, for supplementary mate- 
rial and for pictures which will be of value to the 
class, The Many-Sided Franklin, by Paul Leicester 
Ford. (2) Abraham Lincoln: Abraham Lincoln, 
the Boy and the Man, by James Morgan (Macmil- 
lan). This is one of the most beautiful of biogra- 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 251 

phies. The teacher will use, in addition, the Life by 
Ida Tarbell (Doubleday, Page and Company). If 
possible, obtain the four-volume edition for the 
sake of the pictures* From 1858 use also, if acces- 
sible, the pictures in Harper's Weekly. (3) Booker 
T. Washington, Up from Slavery (Doubleday, Page 
and Company). As an alternative to (3) I recom- 
mend The Life of Alice Freeman Palmer, by her 
husband, George H. Palmer, or Miss Jane Addams' 
Twenty Years in Hull House (Macmillan). For 
many reasons I should like to have Lincoln followed 
by Robert E. Lee, but I can not yet assure myself 
that a biography of this noble and heroic gentleman 
which is at once satisfactory in itself and adapted 
for school use has yet been written. 

A Course in Contemporary Social Progress. — 
It may be found desirable that the course in biog- 
raphy of the freshman year should be followed by 
a study of contemporary social progress in the soph- 
omore year. Like the earlier work, it may be incor- 
porated into the English course, supplying, in this 
case, the material for the required themes. 

The primary aim of such a course will be to bring 
before the pupils some of the more important con- 
temporary movements to make the world a better 
place to live in and man a better person to live with. 
As a part of a course in moral education, however, 
it will exclude those very important advances which 
from the outset have promised their promoters an 



252 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

adequate return in money or power, and will confine 
itself to those which, even though actually followed 
by such rewards, would never have been undertaken 
unless public spirit or race patriotism had formed 
an important element in the sum total of the motives 
to which they owed their inception. 

The attention of the pupils should be directed to 
two matters : The object aimed at, together with the 
means employed, the difficulties overcome, and the 
like; and the man or men who dared, and planned 
and struggled. The latter feature gives it some of 
the advantages in the way of appeal to natural inter- 
ests which are enjoyed by a course in biography. 
In order to combine these two phases of the subject 
into a single field of view, movements which can be 
at least partially identified with one man are chosen 
for study. The fact that there were co-workers or 
independent laborers in the same field must not be 
ignored, and the lives of some of these may be 
studied also. But for the sake of awakening and 
holding the interest of the young student at the time, 
and leaving him in possession of clean-cut pictures 
at the conclusion of the course, the personality of 
the leader must be displayed and his relation to the 
general movement emphasized. 

The work of the year may best begin with a study 
of what is being done by the community in which the 
school exists. From the home town we may pass to 
the state, thence to the nation, which in the course 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 253 

here planned will supply the great bulk of the mate- 
rial. 

The following are a few of the many topics that 
can be studied in such a course, together with the 
names of those persons closely identified with each. 
The movement for the conservation of our natural 
resources, Mr. Pinchot ; the progress of our colonies, 
especially the Philippines, Ex-President Taft; the 
systematic crusade for the betterment of the public 
health. Professor Irving Fisher; the fight against 
communicable diseases. Dr. Walter Reed ; the strug- 
gle for pure- food laws. Dr. Wiley; the housing of 
the poor, Mr. Lawrence Veiller, or Mr. Robert De- 
Forrest; settlement work. Miss Jane Addams; the 
fight against child labor, Mrs. Florence Kelley; the 
uplifting of the negro, Mr. Booker T. Washington; 
the reformation of juvenile delinquents, Judge 
Lindsey, and, in another direction, Mr. George, the 
founder of the George Junior Republic ; agricultural 
education, Dr. Knapp; the beautification of our 
cities, Mr. M. F. Robinson; improved municipal 
government, Ex-Mayor Whitlock, 'of Toledo. 

The materials for this work can be obtained from 
the weekly and monthly journals. The following 
will be found almost indispensable : The World's 
Work or The Review of Reviews; The Outlook or 
the Independent ; The Literary Digest or Current 
Opinion; The American City; and, most important 
of all. The Survey (formerly Charities). Files of 



254 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

either the first or the second, the third or fourth, the 
fifth or sixth, and the last two v\^ill be needed, run- 
ning back, where obtainable, to 1897 — the opening 
of a new era in our national life in more respects 
than one. The pupil should, of course, be sent di- 
rectly to these sources, and any others that may be 
accessible, for his information. One or two mem- 
bers of the class will introduce the topic of the day 
with a paper; the remainder of the period will be 
devoted to its discussion. 

Results to Be Expected from This Course. — 
Four specific results may fairly be expected from 
this course. The first is a realization on the part of 
the pupil that society is an organism, so that nothing 
human can be foreign to him because nothing can 
happen which, sooner or later, will not affect his 
interests, and affect them, oftentimes, profoundly. 
It should in the end become self-evident to him, for 
example, that a triumph of good government or a 
defeat in New Hampshire or New Jersey, in New 
Orleans or in San Francisco, is, in the end, of almost 
as much importance to him as the same thing in his 
native state or city. For our country is in fact one. 
Through our national government each state is 
ruled almost completely by the representatives 
chosen by other states and while individual and civic 
corruption and probity are as contagious as tuber- 
culosis, yet we are now learning that they can be 
successfully fought by united effort. 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 255 

In the second place, the pupil will discover that 
much that is best in his own life is the gift of those 
who have been willing to struggle, sometimes in ob- 
scurity, often misunderstood, always, or at least 
usually, waging a desperate battle against the iner- 
tia, prejudice or selfishness of powerful elements in 
society. With the awareness of this fact the more 
generous natures will feel a strong sense of grati- 
tude to these known and unknown benefactors, a 
determination to place no hindrance in their way, 
an impulse to conduct their future business or pro- 
fession in the same spirit in which these men did 
their work, and, in many cases, a desire to join their 
ranks as active workers for society. 

In the third place, he may be brought to a realiza- 
tion of the magnitude of the issues at stake in the 
struggle for good government and good social and 
economic conditions in the United States. And 
through the study of such books as John Fiske's 
American Political Ideas and Josiah Strong's The 
New Era, his eyes may be opened to the fact that the 
drama being acted under our eyes to-day is of vital 
concern to the future history alike of America and 
of the entire race. Thus may spirits be finely 
touched to the fine issues which in reality are in- 
volved in the struggle for a better community life 
in the United States. 

Finally, a concrete study such as this will make 
the pupil realize more effectively than can anything 



256 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

else that there is such a thing as progress, and that, 
despite the existence of discouraging back eddies 
and long reaches of apparently stagnant water, the 
world is slowly growing better. Thus hope will 
strengthen will. 

The Relation of These Courses to Other 
Forms of Moral Education. — At the close of 
these two courses, the courses namely in biography 
and contemporary progress, the two aspects of the 
moral life — the two sides of the shield — excellence 
or perfection of individual character and the serv- 
ice of our fellow men will have been brought before 
our pupils in a form calculated to arouse the spirit 
of loyal devotion to moral ends. In themselves they 
may be expected to guide and inspire to higher levels 
of conduct. In addition they will serve as a valuable 
foundation for the already described methods of 
moral training, and as an enlightening introduction 
to the systematic study of the moral life, the subject 
to which we next turn our attention. 



CHAPTER XVI 

THE SYSTEMATIC STUDY OF THE CONDUCT OF LIFE I 

ITS AIMS 

History, literature and biography, however valu- 
able they may be as contributions to the knowledge 
of the moral life, do not afford an adequate basis for 
the attainment of the ends of moral instruction. The 
principal reasons for this statement are that, in the 
first place, they do not provide proper or sufificient 
material for the training of the power to distinguish 
between right and wrong, and for the study of how 
to deal with temptations; in the second place they 
do not cover, even in barest outline, the field of the 
second of the great problems of moral instruction. 
They not merely do not, they can not, for the mate- 
rial requisite for this purpose does not exist. The 
addition of civj^s to the list does not really meet the 
situation because it deals with a somewhat highly 
specialized set of duties, and duties of such a nature 
that the most numerous and the most important rep- 
resent obligations not in the present but in the future 
life of the child, with the inevitable unreality which 
that situation carries with it. 

257 



258 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

This is but saying that they can give nothing bet- 
ter than a sketchy, partial and incomplete view of 
the moral world. Now this world is a unity, as we 
have tried to show in Chapter XII ; it is a unity as 
truly as is the world with which the physical sciences 
deal. It has underlying laws which form an organic 
whole and whose significance can be fully under- 
stood only when they are seen in relation to each 
other ; it has certain leading phenomena which illus- 
trate and give meaning to these laws better than do 
other phenomena which are likely to be picked out 
by the casual observation of one who approaches 
the field for some other purpose than that of dis- 
covering its essential features. The conclusion is 
that the moral life demands a study which shall be 
systematic and (within the limits set it by the claims 
of other subjects) comprehensive. The school cur- 
riculum should find a place, therefore, for the sys- 
tematic study of the conduct of life. 

The Insufficiency of the Incidental Method of 
Moral Instruction.— The statements just made 
apply equally well as against the claims of the so- 
called incidental method of moral instruction — the 
occasional discussion of moral issues as they happen 
to be raised by the incidents of school life. Such 
discussion is of course proper enough in its place. 
For a lecture to a class on the wickedness of kicking 
a football into a neighbor's garden or of swiping 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 259 

sweaters from- the lockers, or an admonition ad- 
dressed to an individual pupil on the subject of con- 
ceit or vanity may produce an impression under 
favorable conditions which is both salutary and 
permanent. And a clever teacher, like Mr. McCor- 
mack, of the LaSalle Township High School, will 
seize an untoward incident and compel it to yield its 
last ounce of enlightenment and power to move the 
will.* But who does not see that to depend upon 
such things for giving a real insight into the moral 
life is gambling with chance? And that even where 
the material is most abundant through weakness, 
stupidity, or want of sympathetic understanding of 
youthful human nature on the part of the teachers, 
or total depravity on the part of the pupils, even 
here the result is a purely haphazard, piecemeal 
acquaintanceship, more likely than not to be essen- 
tially superficial ? 

A generation ago in many schools English was 
taught (apart from the elements of grammar) al- 
most exclusively by the "incidental method." Ob- 
serve, in the first place, that the complete absence 
of systematic work in this field was never tolerated, 
for Gould Browne's grammar was already with us. 
In the second place, the incidental method, although 
never relied upon exclusively, was found to be so 
unsatisfactory that no one would ever suggest re- 



* Utilising Moral Crises for Ethical Instruction, Religious 
Education, vol. 9, pp. 36-41. 



260 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

turning to it. Training in the use of the mother 
tongue rests upon the apprehension of principles 
which are not Hkely to be picked up in an algebra or 
Latin class. If this statement is not self-evident for 
English, change the illustration to geography or his- 
tory. What is true of these subjects is equally true 
of the study of the conduct of life. The moral ideal 
must be molded into its proper form, and will derive 
no inconsiderable share of its moving force through 
a general view of the place of morality in life, and 
the relation of the different parts of the moral ideal 
to one another. This requires a systematic survey 
of the world of conduct. 

It is sometimes urged that systematic moral in- 
struction will actually lessen the amount of atten- 
tion given to moral problems. The same objection 
might be urged against instruction in English. As a 
matter of fact, the elevation of English to the dignity 
of a special subject of instruction is leading, par- 
ticularly in those schools where a forceful prin- 
cipal is really interested in English, to increased at- 
tention to the subject on the part of all teachers. 
They now see that a knowledge of English and facil- 
ity in its use are among the ends at which all educa- 
tion must consciously aim. As they discover that 
the English teacher can not accomplish his work 
without their aid, they are moved to help, as they 
never could have been, at all events, as they were 
not, under the old regime. 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 261 

The Fundamental Aims of a Systematic 
Course in the Conduct of Life. — The man who 
does right, as we have already seen, must in the first 
place know what it is right to do in the conditions in 
which he finds himself; furthermore, h^ must love 
the right ; and finally he must know how to deal with 
temptation, i. e., either how to avoid it or to con- 
quer it. Accordingly both subject-matter and 
method of a systematic course in the conduct of life 
will be shaped with a view to the accomplishment of 
three results : ( 1 ) developing in the pupil the power 
and habit of discovering what conduct is right under 
the given conditions; (2) training him to discover 
the significance or value of right conduct in order — 
just as in the appreciation of literature, music or art 
— to develop love through genuine acquaintance, 
through seeing what is there to be seen; (3) training 
him in the art of strengthening his will in the inter- 
vals between temptation, and in the art of making 
the most effective use of every resource at his dis- 
posal in the actual conflict with temptation. 

Each of these three statements is an abstract 
formula, covering a number of subsidiary ends. The 
second was discussed at sufficient length in Chapter 
XII (see page 162.) There remain to us the first 
and the third, to which we now turn our attention. 
We begin with the first. 

The Knowledge of What Is Right: (a) Anal- 
ysis of the Situation. — Morality, as we have said, 



262 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER ^ 

1 
involves a determined effort to produce a good re- 
sult. If, then,^ we are to accomplish what we wish 
our first problem with regard to a proposed action 
must be : What will be its effects, direct and indirect, 
both in the future and in the present, upon self and 
others? A thorough study of indirect effects will 
ber a greater revelation to the pupils than those 
persons who have not given attention to- this matter 
might suppose. For a number of years I have been 
making careful studies of the moral judgments of 
some of the students of the University of Wiscon- 
sin. In such matters as lying and breaking prom- 
ises I find the majority fairly familiar with some 
of the most obvious of the more remote effects. To 
many effects that are of great importance, which 
can be observed by any one who will look for them, 
they seem, however, to be entirely blind. Exercises 
which require the systematic tracing of the effects 
of certain often-recurring forms of action must ac- 
cordingly form an important part of a course which 
would train in moral thought fulness. Where signifi- 
cant effects remain 'undiscovered the teacher can often 
uncover them by asking: What would happen if 
everybody should act in that way ? It will be worth 
while sometimes to set the pupils looking in their 
daily experience for the ill effects of want of punc- 
tuality, obedience, unkindness, thoughtlessness, un- 
veracity, etc., and the good effects of their opposites, 
and reporting their findings to the class. 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 263 

In many cases we have before us when about to 
act two — or sometimes more — well-defined alterna- 
tives which anybody could see. When we are asked 
a question, for example, we may lie, or tell the truth, 
or perhaps evade or shuffle. But in many other 
cases there lies before us a situation containing all 
sorts of possibilities for service of which we are 
simply not aware, or at best only half aware. This 
is true of many things which the child could do for 
his parents, or his brothers and sisters, his play- 
mates at recess, the school, his native city, etc. In 
such cases the first question must be: What can I 
do for my parents ? Or, more specifically, what can I 
do to help lighten the financial load or the burden of 
work or perhaps of worry which they carry? What 
can I do, apart from this, to show my gratitude and 
affection? Obviously we are still in the field of 
cause and effect ; we are looking for causes, namely, 
which if set in motion will produce certain results. 

Effects are always relative, on the one hand, to 
the agent's powders; on the other, to the nature of 
the situation in which action takes place. A rubber 
ball thrown at a wall leads to one effect; a lump of 
lead, to another. If the ball is thrown against a 
stone wall, we get one result; if it is thrown at a 
sand heap or into the water, a very different one. 
Similarly, the effects of human actions often turn 
upon one's powers really to serve in the instance 
under consideration ; and the total effects can be de- 



264 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

termined only by inquiring also what must be left 
undone if something else is done. The discussion 
of this subject may open to the pupil the entire field 
of self-knowledge. Again the effects will have value 
only in so far as they serve the needs or interests — 
actual or potential — of some human being or group 
of human beings. Hence the problem requiring con- 
sideration may be : What are the needs and inter- 
ests — the real needs and interests — of the parties 
who make up the given social situation? This of 
course is the problem of opportunity. 

The fact must not be overlooked that certain con- 
ditions are so nearly universal that for most pur- 
poses they may be treated as such ; as, for example, 
the conditions that demand respect for the life and 
property of others. On the other hand, we can not 
ignore the complementary fact that even such condi- 
tions as these may not be completely universal, 
since whatever we do ought to be determined by the 
demands of the highest interests concerned. Thus 
most persons will approve Jean Val jean's theft of 
the loaf of bread when it was needed to save the 
family of his sister from starvation. But it is inad- 
visable to dwell upon these exceptional situations 
with high-school children, to say nothing of the chil- 
dren in the grades. One reason is that there are 
many things of far greater practical value to which 
we can devote the few scraps of time at our disposal. 
A far more important reason is that it tends to breed 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 265 

a wrong attitude toward moral rules. Some argu- 
ment can be found in favor of anything; and dis- 
cussion, certainly frequent or lengthy discussions, 
of the permissibiHty of breaking general rules such 
as Thou shalt not steal, tend to give the pupil the 
idea that nothing in the moral world is fixed or cer- 
tain. 

(b) The Determination of the Standard to Be 
Applied to the Situation.— The problem of what 
we ought to do is not solved, however, by a mere 
analysis of the situation, with its estimate of needs 
and abilities, and its calculations of effects. These 
tell us what is. The ultimately important question 
is : The conditions being such, what ought I to do ? 
We must have, in other words, not merely informa- 
tion, but standards. Where is the teacher to obtain 
these? There is but one possible answer. The 
teacher must use his own code, having taken care 
to make it as clear, consistent and complete as he is 
capable of doing. To some readers this advice may 
seem like an invitation to anarchy. I do not believe 
it is. The code of the thoughtful American teacher 
who is upright and sympathetic in his own life will 
be a fair representative of the best public opinion 
of our day. This does not mean necessarily that 
it will be perfect, but rather that it will be adequate 

for the task assie^ned it. The teacher's function in 

/■ 

the class room is not to transcend our best contempo- 
rary code of morals (eyen supposing that it needs 



266 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

transcending at any point). It is rather to clarify it 
and render it more definite where through want of 
reflection it remains vague, to apply its principles to 
near-lying fields which have not yet recognized its 
authority, to render it more consistent, and to re- 
move the absurdities which arise from the fact that 
we are constandy approving a course of action when 
it inures to our benefit and condemning it when it 
threatens us with harm. As he thus works over his 
o\vn code with a view to preparing himself to meet 
his class he will recognize more and more completely 
the truth of the statement that love, in the sense of 
the spirit of service, is the fulfilling of the law; and 
that the test of a good act, therefore, is: Does it 
really serve, in the long run, the highest interests of 
those whom it affects ? 

Thus would I answer the question where the 
teacher is to get his own standards. But this can 
never be his starting point in the class room. It 
indicates rather his goal. The starting point must 
be determined by the principle of apperception as 
emphasized in geography, or, for that matter, in 
any other subject of instruction. In other words 
the start must be made from the standards which 
the pupils bring with them to school. These 
standards must be those they actually accept 
(which, of course, does not mean practise), and 
not those they merely believe they accept. The 
test is: How will they judge a concrete case? 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 2(y7 

The method by which you lead them from their own 
inadequate and often immoral point of view to that 
which is higher and more valid may be somewhat 
as follows. If you get their honest opinion concern- 
ing, for example, some common form of business 
trickery, you will find a good many who think 
lightly of it, or actually admire it as "smart." Now 
run down a list of transactions growing constantly 
more shady in character and you will ultimately 
reach some instance of theft or other kind of fraud 
or of violence which every one will refuse to "stand 
for." Then you may show that the conduct which 
they have been regarding as innocent or admirable 
differs in no essential respect from the evil they un- 
hesitatingly condemn. Hence it is open to the same 
reprobation.* 

Sometimes the result can be reached in a simpler 
manner. The principal of an elementary school once 
talked at great length to two boys of ten and twelve 
who had been engaged in a very serious piece of 
mischief. She produced no effect upon them what- 
ever until finally she asked : How would you like 
to have your mother treated that way ? Thereupon 
they immediately surrendered. She used, as is ob- 
vious, the principle of the Golden Rule. This is so 
rational, so self -evidently fair, that it can be em- 
ployed to untie many ethical knots. But care should 
be taken to use it only when it really appeals to the 
conscience and is not a mere form of words. 
* Cf. above, p. 186. 



268 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

The moral judgment is most trustworthy when 
it passes upon situations in which the issues are Hfe 
and death. One of the several causes of this fact 
is very instructive. Ordinarily, when we are asked 
whether an action is right — for example, is it right 
to tempt another person to do wrong? — we place 
ourselves quite spontaneously in the position of the 
imagined agent, whereupon at once the insidious 
thought of what we should gain by the operation 
comes to blind our judgment. But we can not imagine 
ourselves acting as a murderer; so our view of his i 
deed stands a better chance of being impartial. This | 
principle we shall often find it convenient to use. f 
Thus where one man hires a band of thugs to kill 
another man, all the pupils will see without difficulty 
that he can not escape responsibility for the murder. 
From this vantage ground it is easy to show that a 
man who bribes or otherwise induces one person to 
wrong a third party by breaking a contract can not 
for a moment be regarded as guiltless. And the 
consideration that the thugs who acted as agents 
were, in their turn, equally guilty with their prin- 
cipal may be applied to throw light upon the prob- 
lem of publishing fraudulent advertisements. 

The Appeal to Authority in Determining the 
Standard. — It appears from the preceding that 
we are to educate our pupils to the acceptance of 
proper standards primarily by training them to 
see the implications of the^'r own deepest ideals of 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 269 

human relationships. What we must not do, on 
the other hand, is to appeal to public opinion to 
settle questions of right and wrong, at least 
in any other way than as confirming conclu- 
sions otherwise reached. The reasons for this 
assertion should now be clear. In the first place, we 
are trying to train our pupils to think, and the ap- 
peal to authority represents the cessation of thought. 
In the second place, as has been asserted above, in 
matters of right and wrong, authority, in so far as 
it has any effect — and I do not question the fact that 
it has a large effect — determines, in the main, what 
we believe we believe rather than what we actually 
believe. And it is the latter rather than the former 
which counts when we face a concrete temptation. 
Right, we have said, represents what the good man 
wants to do. You can move another to do right (I 
am not speaking of outer conformity but of inner 
acceptance) only as you can make him see that the 
action in question is what he really wants human 
beings as such to do. In the face of serious tempta- 
tion to the contrary he will ordinarily not act unless 
he can see this with his own eyes. 

These considerations will serve to prevent the 
teacher from appealing to the authority of his own 
ipse dixit. This principle is fundamental in deal- 
ing with young people of high-school age, especially 
in the upper classes, whatever may be the subject 
that is being taught. For this period of life brings 



270 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

with it a strong demand for liberty, and this means 
among other things hberation from the burden of 
authority, and the opportunity to think things out 
for themselves. Even in dealing with little children, 
however, this policy should also be followed. This 
statement does not mean that they should be led or 
forced into a course of reasoning on casuistry prob- 
lems. It means rather that all but the simplest ques- 
tions concerning what ought and ought not to be 
done should be excluded from classes made up of 
young children. Where you can not bring your 
pupils' moral ideals up to a satisfactory level, you 
should either carry them along as far as you can 
without attempting to bully them into accepting your 
opinions, or else omit the subject entirely from your 
program. Examples of what is meant are revenge 
and informing against wrong-doers. 

Summary.— We may summarize the preceding 
statements, though in a new order, as follows. The 
most important aims in this department of the field 
of moral instruction are as follows. (1) Training 
the pupils to discover what their own deepest 
ideals really are, through the use of concrete illus- 
trative material. (2) Training in the habit of look- 
ing at actions impartially, that is, independently of 
their chance relations to the private interests of the 
person judging. (3) Training them to discover 
the implications of these ideals, particularly in the 
case of bad actions which pass more or less generally 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 271 

unchallenged, and of desirable actions which are not 
under ordinary circumstances demanded by the av- 
erage conscience. (4) Training the power to trace 
the effects of actions, direct and indirect, immediate 
and remote, upon self and others. It will be remem- 
bered that effects are always dependent upon the 
powers of the agent, and get their value through 
their relation to the needs and interests of the recip- 
ient or recipients. (5) Training the constructive 
imagination to think out forms of service. 

The Knov^Iedge Required for the Attainment 
of Self~Control.~ We turn to the third aim of 
moral instruction. It consists, essentially, as has al- 
ready been said, in aiding the young to work out 
a theory of self-control. This means teaching them 
how to prepare for temptation and how to 
handle themselves when they stand face to face 
with it. With this purpose in viev^r we shall 
help them discover how to deal with the various 
kinds of temptation that beset them, there being as 
many varieties of defense as there are of attack. 
They must be led to realize in detail how many and 
what temptations to wrong-doing have their source 
in failure to see the situation before them as it really 
is, and to understand the necessity of cultivating the 
power to see straight as a means of protection in 
time of stress. They must be taught how to recog- 
nize temptations for what they are when they appear 
under insidious forms, how to keep them from en- 



212 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

tering the mind, how and under what circumstances 
to avoid them, how to drive them and keep them 
from the field of attention, how most effectively to 
neutralize their appeal when they can not be dis- 
lodged from the mind, how to strengthen weak reso- 
lutions in the intervals of attack, how to keep the 
interest or desire to which they appeal from grow- 
ing too strong to be controlled. Above all must we 
train them to prepare for themselves allies in the 
form of collateral interests which will cooperate 
when temptation presses in sweeping the enemy 
from the field. 

Application to the Elementary School. — In 
writing the above I have had in mind primarily 
the needs of the upper classes of a high school. 
However, the spirit which animates the moral life 
is essentially the same for all periods of life. Ac- 
cordingly, the specific aims of a course for ele- 
mentary-school children will differ from that in- 
tended for the high-school pupils chiefly in the matter 
of emphasis. The obvious principle that moral in- 
struction should deal chiefly with the present duties 
and opportunities of the children rather than with 
those which will come to them in later years must 
of course be applied even more rigidly in the ele- 
mentary school than in the high school. The only 
important exception will be supplied by the eighth 
grade, where problems of civic morality and pos- 
sibly some few other forward-looking matters may 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 273 

and indeed must be discussed. Generalizations 
must be avoided largely or wholly. The mind of the 
child under fourteen is really at home only in the 
concrete. In considering what is right, the emphasis 
must be placed on forms of service which the child 
might not think of unless moved to reflect. The 
things he must not do should by no means be ig- 
nored. But here again even more imperatively than 
in the high school it is necessary that difficult prob- 
lems, the solution of which involves a nice balancing 
of opposing considerations, should be rigidly ex- 
cluded from the class exercise. Moral instruction 
does not exist anywhere in the school in order to 
start children struggling w^ith the perplexities of the 
conflict of duties. It may as a matter of fact help 
them to solve such problems when these enter their 
lives. Nevertheless, even in the upper classes of the 
high school this department of the subject should be 
treated, if at all, more or less incidentally. As for 
the grades, unless the problem comes right out of the 
experience of some member of the class, this phase 
of the moral life should be buried in silence. 

Impossibility of Separating the Three Aims. 
— It will appear from the preceding treatment that 
what we have designated as the three great problems 
of moral instruction can not be kept separate. We 
can not ask what is right in a given case without in- 
quiring about effects. We can not control the tem- 
per without finding that one must discover first pre- 



274 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

cisely what the situation is in its completeness, and 
secondly what will be the effects upon self and 
others of indulging in angry feelings or revengeful 
actions. Indeed, we can not advance a single step 
in any direction in the study of the moral life with- 
out using the idea of cause and effect. Nevertheless 
our three sets of problems remain, in themselves, 
distinct, however much we may use the same instru- 
ment in solving them. They represent, at the very 
least, different points of view from which the same 
object can be surveyed. And if we fail to use any 
one of them, the picture which we carry away will 
be by so much the poorer. 

The Development of the Desire to Do Right 
Is the Most Important of These Aims.— The 
question, "What is right?" is about the only one that 
finds a place in most programs of moral instruction. 
Our belief, on the contrary, is that in so far as it can 
be distinguished from the others, it should be treated 
as of secondary importance. This in no way means 
that it is to be ignored. Least of all can this be per- 
mitted when the pupils' views are seriously errone- 
ous or inadequate. It means that in a course that 
can not possibly be exhaustive, and which, if it were, 
would be exhausting, the emphasis must be thrown 
elsewhere. Mistaken judgments of right and wrong, 
equally with thoughtlessness with regard to one's 
responsibilities, are, indeed, the source of an appall- 
ing amount of the world's loss and suffering. But 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 275 

what is most needed to set poor human nature right 
is motive power. The creation of that kind of in- 
sight into the nature of right and wrong which kin- 
dles love of the right and hatred of the wrong, this 
must be the teacher's first concern. In comparison 
with this task, others sink into relative insignifi- 
cance. Furthermore, such is the interrelation of 
the three problems that, as we have seen, light 
thrown upon the second represents the most impor- 
tant single contribution that can be made to the 
successful solution of the other two. Accordingly 
the question, "What difference will it make whether 
this or the other alternative is chosen in a given situ- 
ation?" should be made the central problem of sys- 
tematic moral instruction. 

Moral Instruction and Ethics. — It will be ob- 
served that in all this little or nothing has been said 
about what are commonly accounted the problems 
of the theory of ethics. Ethics does indeed ask what 
actions are right and wrong. This department of 
the subject may properly be called applied ethics, 
and our course in systematic moral instruction will 
accordingly contain some applied ethics. On the 
other hand, the problems of theoretical ethics are 
such as these : What makes an action right ? What 
is the meaning of the word right? What is the 
source of our knowledge of right? What are the 
laws of moral development? What are the condi- 
tions of moral responsibility? With these things 



276 EDUCATION FOR CHARACtER 

the high-school course in the conduct of life as we 
conceive it has nothing whatever to do. Such prob- 
lems are not merely unsuited to the interests and 
abilities of high-school pupils, the discussion of them 
is of no great immediate utility as far as the build- 
ing of character is concerned. It may be well for 
the teacher to have definite ideas on these subjects 
provided he does not parade them before his pupils. 
He may often find theni useful in the class room. 
But such knowledge is not indispensable to the 
teacher, while for the average high-school pupil it 
is so much intellectual lumber or worse. A total 
misunderstanding with regard to this point vitiates 
completely the majority of the attacks upon moral 
instruction in the schools. 

The French System of Moral Instruction and 
That Here Described, Contrasted. — Moral in- 
struction was made an integral and compulsory part 
of the curriculum of the elementary schools in 
France in the year 1882, and was later introduced 
by law into certain classes of the schools preparatory 
to the universities. Wide-spread compliance not 
merely with the letter but also with the spirit of the 
law dates from about 1900. Because of relative 
priority in the field France is commonly regarded 
as the classical land of moral instruction, and who- 
ever uses the term runs the risk of being supposed 
to be talking about the French system. The typical 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 277 

French method consists, broadly speaking, in (1) 
an assertion, (2) upon the authority of the teacher, 
that (3) a certain class of actions (loving one's par- 
ents, lying), ordinarily conceived quite abstractly, 
(4) is right or wrong. This statement may be fol- 
lowed by (5) praise of the good or condemnation of 
the bad, with the exhortation to perform or abstain. 
It should be obvious even to the most careless 
reader that the procedure recommended in this book 
differs from the above method radically at every 
point. According to it (1) the primary aim of 
moral instruction (so-called) should be not to 
give information but to train the power and the 
habit of using the power of discovering for one's 
self the facts of the moral life; (2) authority from 
the very first years should play an insignificant and 
always a secondary role, especially the authority of 
the teacher, the appeal being to the pupil's real 
ideals; (3) the discussion of moral problems should 
without exception be conducted in the light of con- 
crete incidents, and especially with the children of 
the elementary school should largely avoid broad 
generalizations; (4) casuistry questions — questions 
as to what is right or wrong — should form the 
smaller part of a course in moral instruction ; in par- 
ticular the permissibility of breaking general rules 
should be left to one side as far as possible; the im- 
portant problem is, what difference does it make 



278 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

whether I do what is right or wrong? (5) exhorta- 
tion and praise form no part whatever of a course 
in moral instruction, and should seldom or never be 
used in conducting it. 



CHAPTER XVII 

A PROGRAM FOR THE SYSTEMATIC STUDY OF THE 
CONDUCT OF LIFE 

A SYSTEMATIC coursc in the conduct of life will 
consist in an ordered survey of life's duties; or 
rather of those duties which fall to childhood and 
youth, together with such others, in the eighth and 
twelfth grades, as, because of their importance and 
their power to arouse interest, may be added with 
advantage. Naturally the content of the course will 
depend to a very large extent upon the age of the 
child for whom it is intended. It is accordingly 
necessary to set very different programs for the ele- 
mentary school and the high school. 

The Classification of Duties. — It is impossible 
to deal successfully with either program with- 
out saying a few words about the method to be 
used in classifying duties. This is, to be sure, pri- 
marily a topic for discussion with the makers of 
text-books and syllabi rather than with the teachers 
themselves. Inasmuch, however, as the mistakes 
in classification which are found in some of the 
text-books are likely to confuse the teachers who 

279 



280 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

use them and in the end their pupils also, a few 
words on this subject, by way of introduction to the 
problems of the chapter, seem unavoidable. 

Duties are always duties to some one (including 
one's self). Duties, therefore, must be classified 
with reference to the persons or groups to whom 
they are due, and the circumstances under which 
they are due. From this it follows at once that qual- 
ities like courage and perseverance are not, as such, 
virtues, and should not appear in a classification of 
the duties of life by the side of veracity, kindness, 
duties to one's parents, and loyalty to one's country. 
A moment's thought will show the truth of this 
statement. The rightness or wrongness of an act 
turns on the end in view, as has been shown above. 
A military adventurer, therefore, or for that matter 
a bandit or a common thief, may show much cour- 
age in a thoroughly bad enterprise ; a man like Webb 
may show extraordinary courage in a perfectly use- 
less attempt to swim the Niagara rapids. This does 
not make their conduct morally praiseworthy. The 
only courage entitled to that characterization is that 
which shows itself in the pursuit of some worthy 
end. It is the end, or in other words the effects we 
seek to produce upon human welfare that determine 
the status of our action as right or wrong. A dis- 
cussion of courage which should set forth these 
facts to immature minds might be of value. Other- 
wise it and the allied qualities have no place in a 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER . 281 

scheme of duties. The field of right action must be 
classified according to the forms of service due upon 
different occasions to different classes of persons. 

A Course for the Elementary School.^ — My 
views with regard to the program for the elementary 
school were set forth in a Syllabus of Moral and 
Civic Iitstruction published by the University of 
Wisconsin in 1914. This was written in collabora- 
tion with Mr. F. J. Gould. Mr. Gould, as many 
readers will know, was for many years demon- 
strator for the British Moral Education League. 
As such, he devoted, as he is still devoting, all his 
time and his rare abilities to the different phases of 
the moral instruction of elementary-school children 
in Great Britain. He is likewise well acquainted 
with our own school children, their aptitudes and 
their needs. For he has made two visits to this 
country, the second of which extended through the 
entire school year of 1913-1914, when he gave dem- 
onstrations of his methods in a large number of 
American cities. Inasmuch as our pamphlet is now 
out of print, I have placed the program it offered 
in the Appendix of this book. Light upon some of 
the topics will be obtained, I think, from the dis- 
cussion of the high-school course of study which 
follows in this chapter. 

"The program for the elementary school is con- 
structed on the principle of continuity, certain lead- 
ing themes — namely, self-government, kindness, 



282 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

trustworthiness, fairness (justice) and social out- 
look being repeated from year to year. As the 
grades advance, the topics are treated on broader 
lines, and with increasingly complex illustrations, 
adapted to the rising intelligence of the pupils. 
What is included or excluded in a given grade is 
determined partly by what seem to be the dominant 
interests of the child at that period of his life, to- 
gether with his special needs and temptations, and 
partly by mere considerations of the amount of time 
at the disposal of the course. The necessary limita- 
tions of time explain what may appear pure caprice 
in the selection and disposal of certain topics. 

"Occasional overlapping may be noticed ; allusions 
to self-control, for instance, occur under more than 
one heading. But this is far from being a disad- 
vantage; and it reminds the teacher how intercon- 
nected are the virtues, and how the moral life is 
fundamentally one. The teacher is particularly re- 
quested to note that the first grade should link up 
with the work of the kindergarten; and each subse- 
quent grade should include the points dealt with in 
preceding grades. Any topic of Grade I, II, or III, 
for example, may be taken up and reinforced by the 
teacher of Grade IV. 

"Teachers who believe that talks on conduct 
should not form a part of the work of the earliest 
years of the child's school life may use the program 
for the corresponding grades to indicate aims for 
which they are to strive, even if they disapprove of 
using it as a source of material for lessons. 

"The table of thirty-six lessons allotted to each 
year must not be too rigidly interpreted. Topics 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 283 

may be added or omitted as the judgment of the 
teacher dictates; topics may perhaps be combined; 
and a topic treated here as one item may obviously 
be dealt with at length in other parts of the school 
curriculum. Furthermore, the partial or total omis- 
sion of the entire subject of moral instruction from 
one grade need not prevent its inclusion in the pro- 
gram of a subsequent grade. In other words, no at- 
tempt is here made to present a closed, inflexible 
system."* 

If a different principle of distribution and a dif- 
ferent order of topics is preferred from that which 
is here presented, the reader may consult the excel- 
lent text-book by Mrs. Ella Lyman Cabot entitled 
Ethics for Children (Houghton Mifflin), and the 
more recent book by Mrs. Cabot, Miss Fannie Fern 
Andrews, and others, entitled A Course in Citizen- 
ship. A program very different from either of these 
will be found in a Syllabus of Lessons in Moral In- 
struction for Elementary and Secondary Schools, 
published by the American Ethical Union, 1415 Lo- 
cust Street, Philadelphia. It presents in outline the 
course of study used in the Ethical Culture School 
of New York City, the pioneer in the present-day 
movement, not merely in this country, but, as far as 
I am aware, in the world. As all these publications 
are easily accessible I need devote no more space to 
this subject. 



* From the Introduction to the Syllabus. 



284 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

The Problem of Sexual Instruction in the Ele- 
mentary School. — The program of the present 
book contains no direct references to sexual morality 
as such. This is not because I think it either unim- 
portant or unfitted for introduction into the ele- 
mentary school. On the contrary, I beHeve that 
every child on the verge of adolescence has a right 
to reliable information about certain phases of the 
sexual life, and about his relations to the opposite 
sex; and I beHeve society has the right to insist, in 
its own interests, that such information shall be im- 
parted. I believe, furthermore, that the parents of 
this generation can not be depended upon to supply 
the information on a scale worth considering. It is 
with this as with most other departments of moral 
instruction, and perhaps training. The parents will 
take hold of the matter only after they have been in- 
terested in it and taught how to deal with it, as 
pupils in the schools. I believe, finally, that the pres- 
ent situation is so bad that at whatever risks some- 
thing must be attempted. 

On the other hand, it is equally clear that the 
problem of sexual instruction, especially in the ele- 
mentary school, is one of exceptional difficulty. It 
requires teachers with at least a certain amount of 
special knowledge and also of special aptitudes and 
gifts. What is of equal importance, there exists no 
general method of dealing with this subject in the 
elementary school which has been adequately tested 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 285 

by experience. Under these circumstances, I do not 
feel warranted in making any other recommenda- 
tions than the following. 

Superintendents, principals and teachers who are 
really interested in the welfare of elementary-school 
children should give this subject their most care- 
ful attention. There is now a small amount of lit- 
erature which supplies a genuine introduction to 
the subject (for some of the more valuable titles, 
see Bibliography, page 436). Preeminent stands 
Maurice A. Bigelow's Sex Education (Macmillan, 
1916), which should be studied with great care. 
When the teacher or principal has prepared himself 
for the work the method of procedure will depend 
upon whether there already has been established in 
the school a systematic course in moral instruction. 
If not, the most conservative method of procedure 
would be that recommended by Professor Bigelow 
on pages 23-24 of his book. 

If, however, there exists such a course, then the 
subject could easily and naturally find a place as a 
part of this more inclusive whole. It goes without 
saying that the sexes would be segregated, that each 
sex would be talked to — in most cases, at least — 
by one of the same sex, and that those of the 
same stage of development would be grouped 
together regardless of whether they happened 
to be in the same grade or not. In addition 
I think the talks on the subject should be given only 



286 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

to those on the edge of adolescence, and that the 
groups should ordinarily be small. Opportunity 
should be offered for private conference. Where 
the school has no male teacher, then the principal of 
another school or the school doctor may be called in 
to talk to the boys, usually not an ordinary physi- 
cian. In small towns the superintendent will do the 
work himself. The number of talks should not ex- 
ceed four or five. Their introduction into the course 
should not be "announced" to the public through the 
press or in any other way. There is no need of 
asking the board of education for permission to give 
them. The board will usually be glad to have them 
given, but will sometimes be embarrassed at being 
asked for the permission. Where parents object, 
their children can of course be excused; but experi- 
ence shows that the number of such parents is al- 
most negligible. It must be understood that these 
talks deal with something more than what is com- 
monly called sex hygiene. For it is equally im- 
portant that the necessity and the method of self- 
control, especially in the form of controlling the 
thoughts, the beauty of a chivalrous attitude toward 
girls and women, and the supreme value of the fam- 
ily should be revealed to the young mind. 

The only way to solve the very difficult problems 
of sexual instruction in the elementary schools is for 
an association or other group of teachers to devote 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 287 

a long period of years to an experimental investiga- 
tion of the subject. Cooperation of large numbers, 
continuity of effort and conservation of results 
would doubtless best be obtained by forming some 
sort of organic relation with the American Social 
Hygiene Association (105 West Fortieth Street, 
New York City). Several different plans, each as 
carefully considered as possible, should be delib- 
erately tried in different communities through a con- 
siderable number of years. The results may be de- 
termined in several ways. The most reliable single 
one, in my judgment, would be the reasoned opin- 
ions of the pupils themselves, taken some ten or fif- 
teen years after leaving school. 

The High-School Course in Moral Instruction. 
* — If a high school offers a four-year course in moral 
instruction it should be divided, I believe, about as 
follows : For the first year the most interesting and 
effective work that can be done is undoubtedly in 
the field of biography. In the second year this 
could be followed with great advantage by a course 
in contemporary social movements, in which biog- 
raphy, civics, and to a certain extent a very concrete 
form of sociology, are united. These courses are 
described in Chapter XV. They would best form 
part of the work in English. 

The course in the systematic study of the conduct 
of life which is here presented is planned for the 



288 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

third and fourth years of the high school, and will 
require two recitations per week through two years 
to complete. For reasons already stated, it does not 
include the field of civic duties in the narrower sense 
of the term. 

The System of Classification Used in the Fol- 
lowing Outline. — No system of classification of 
duties can be made which from the purely logical 
point of view is entirely satisfactory, but the one 
here given, which follows very roughly the order in 
which interests appear in the developing mind, will 
work in the class room sufBciently well. The order 
in which the subjects for study are arranged and 
the place of the universal duties, as veracity, in the 
plan are determined largely by pedagogical rather 
than logical considerations. It will be obvious, I 
suppose, that under each relationship, as the home, 
we take up only those duties, or those aspects of 
a duty, which follow from the special nature of the 
relationship itself. Thus veracity is a duty which 
the child owes his parents. But the duty is not only 
not limited to the home, it does not take any special 
characteristic form when exercised in relation to the 
members of the family. Hence it does not appear 
in the discussion of home duties. 

(I) The Service of Self. — The pursuit of the 
more permanent as distinguished from the passing 
good of the self. (1) Self-control is the first condi- 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 289 

tion of ability to serve one's true interests. It may be 
to a greater or a less degree inborn; it is, however, 
usually to a large extent acquired through self -con- 
quest. Other things being equal, the higher the being 
is in the scale of intelligence, the greater the amount 
of self-conquest necessary. This is because of the 
number of conflicting interests, each competing for 
the opportunity to determine action. Therefore con- 
flict is the price of our superiority over the ani- 
mal and the savage. Since self-control is so largely 
the result of conflict, the first law of morality is: 
Be strong. (2) The goal of self-conquest is habit. 
Discussion of the laws of habit. (3) How to gain 
self-control illustrated by the conflict with anger 
and resentment ; also with sulkiness. (4) Self-knowl- 
edge is the second fundamental condition of the at- 
tainment of the more enduring goods of life. It in- 
cludes knowledge of our intellectual abilities, our 
real interests, and of our volitional powers. The at- 
tainment of such knowledge thus becomes one of the 
most imperative of duties. A. The determination of 
what our deepest interests are involves: (a) The 
discovery of what will give us real and permanent 
satisfaction, or what elements of life are most valu- 
able or best worth while. Its treatment involves 
a preliminary study of the subject of success, which 
appears in the latter part of the program of the 
fourth year, below, (b) The development of la- 



290 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

tent interests. How to discover whether we have la- 
tent interests in one or another form of work, in 
leadership in some department of school life, in 
reading, collecting, music, etc. B. Acquisition of a 
knowledge of our own powers of intellect and will. 
The problems of conceit, self-confidence and self- 
reliance. Why conceit may be a deadly vice. The 
conquest of prejudice in favor of self; also the 
prejudice of self-depreciation. (5) Some of the fun- 
damental aims of the service of self. The attain- 
ment of happiness involves the existence of tastes 
or interests, and having in our possession the means 
of satisfying th^m. In our struggle for the second, 
we are constantly overlooking the importance of the 
first. This might do no particular harm were it not 
for the fact that many of the most satisfying inter- 
ests have to be developed in many persons by more 
or less systematic cultivation ; and interests often die 
through neglect in our struggle for money or other 
means of satisfying them. The fundamentally im- 
portant aims in the service of self are : (a) Physical 
vigor, (b) Intellectual power, (c) Breadth and 
strength (richness) of permanent and healthy in- 
terests. Interest in work and affection for friends 
are illustrations. (The anticipation of topics treated 
later in detail is deliberate.) (d) A character which 
makes it possible for us to respect ourselves. It 
may fairly include pride and joy in the possession 
of strength of character. (6) The boundaries of 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 291 

the service of self. It appears from the above that 
the boundaries of one's interest must pass beyond 
self if one is to have the richest life himself. It 
remains to show that the means of satisfaction are 
so frequently in the hands of others or of the com- 
munity as a whole that one's own good is as often 
obtained through the service of others as of self. 
Society is an organism. One illustration among 
many is the relation of business success to the con- 
fidence which others have in us, a confidence based 
on our integrity. The correlation between the in- 
terests of self and the interests of others is not per- 
fect. Otherwise there would be need of nothing 
more than long-sighted selfishness. 

(II) The Home.-— (1) The significance of in- 
fancy and childhood, and thus of the home. Orphans 
are now placed, if possible, in homes instead of in asy- 
lums. The home is an organism from which we can 
never entirely separate ourselves. (On the nature 
of the family see Helen Bosanquet's The Family.) 
(2) What constitutes an ideal family life. Its value 
to each of its members. What can I do to make it 
more nearly satisfactory not merely for myself but 
for the other members of the family also? (This 
question is put as a preparation for the discussion 
which follows.) (3) The opportunities for help- 
fulness and kindness in the home. Courtesy and 
politeness between members of the same family. 
Cheerfulness. Good temper. Tact and insight in 



292 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

the home, their value and how to acquire them. 
Why we are so often thoughtless or indifferent 
about these matters in relation to the members of 
our family. (4) Respect for parents. The problem 
of our attitude toward parents of inferior education. 
Stories by Mary Wilkins Freeman; Irving Bachel- 
ler's Keeping Up with Lizde; Oppenheim's Dr. 
Rast, and Groping Children (the latter in the Amer- 
ican Magazine for January, 1909) ; Carlyle's por- 
traits of his father and mother in his Reminiscences. 
A study of the cares and responsibilities of our par- 
ents. Our attitude toward the failings of our par- 
ents. How far parental irritability may be due to 
burdens which they carry or anxieties they feel on 
our account. (5) Affection. In what respect it 
lies within our power, and is thus a duty as well 
as the richest of privileges. Within limits it is pos- 
sible to determine whom we shall love and hate by 
guiding the attention and memory. We tend to for- 
get the good and remember the evil. The effects of 
this failing upon the other members of the family. 
How we can get rid of such one-sidedness, (One 
way is to attack our own self-conceit. We think 
ourselves perfect and so blame everything disagree- 
able that happens upon some one else.) What are 
the causes which may lead to mutual dislike among 
the members of a family? How far are they remov- 
able? Misunderstandings and faultfinding. Family 
quarrels ; how they arise and how their number can 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 293 

be reduced. How far misunderstandings, fault- 
finding, and other sources of quarrels may be due to 
our own selfishness. (6) Our duties to our parents. 
Obedience, its rationale and its proper limitations. 
Success as a duty to one's parents. Our economic 
duty to our parents. Ways of cooperating with 
our parents; sharing burdens; the family budget. 
(7) What brothers and sisters can do for each 
other, illustrated by Charles and Mary Lamb, the 
brothers Grimm, "Dan" and "Zeke" Webster. (8) 
The foundation of a satisfactory family life is un- 
selfishness in all its forms. (9) The servant in the 
house: her work; her life; the difBculties of her 
position. Our duties to the servant. 

(Ill) Our Friends (Chums).— (1) The funda- 
mental features of friendship (as distinguished 
from acquaintanceship) are: (a) our feeling of sat- 
isfaction at being in the company of one with the 
same tastes and interests as ourselves; and (b) hav- 
ing some one who is interested in our welfare. (2) 
The characteristic features of a true friend. In- 
terest in all that concerns his friend, including 
pleasure in talking about it with him. Pride and 
joy in his achievements. Envy beclouds friendship; 
therefore one tends to kill the other. Charity in 
judgment. Loyalty. Preserving confidences, in- 
cluding those we were not specifically requested to 
keep silent about. Material aid which we can give 
our friends. Offering it before it is asked. Thought- 



294 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

fulness. Friendship involves reciprocity ; "To have 
a friend you must be a friend" (Emerson). (3) 
How to preserve and strengthen friendships. The 
element of time in the formation and strengthening 
of friendship. (4) What to do when our friend 
wrongs us. When he otherwise disappoints us. 
When he ceases to be congenial. (5) What kind 
of boys to choose as friends. (6) The value of 
friendship. (Brief treatment of a later topic.) 

(IV) School Life.— (1) The value of the 
school to the pupil. Include in this not merely the 
value of the class-room work but also the opportuni- 
ties for social relationships with others which it af- 
fords. School life and school duties as a training 
ground for later life and its duties. (2) The ration- 
ale of the school and class-room laws of punctuality, 
neatness, silence, industry and courtesy, and their 
value to the pupil himself. (3) The care of school 
property. Ways of cooperating with the school au- 
thorities, from the janitor up. (4) Cribbing, the use 
of translations, copying themes and laboratory re- 
ports. Prompting and otherwise helping our school- 
mates in dishonesty. The diploma obtains its value 
from the fact that the majority of the pupils, reck- 
oning over a period of years, actually do the work 
which the diploma declares they have done. He who is 
dishonest in school work consents to profit by the ef- 
forts of his fellows while at the same time refusing 
to do his part toward maintaining the values they 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 295 

have helped to create. He thus places himself in the 
position of one who declines to "pull his own 
weight." In other words, he is playing the part of 
the sponge. (5) The problem of rivalry in school 
work. Prizes. The love of excelling vs, the love 
of excellence. In the former a person has his eyes 
on the other fellow and is trying to pass him. In 
the latter he has before himself a standard or ideal 
of excellence which he is trying to reach regardless 
of what any one else is doing. (6) Athletics : their 
place in school life. What they can do to develop 
the manly traits of character and under what condi- 
tions. Professionalism in athletics. Fair play. Is 
there any relationship between these last topics and 
those under (4) ? Write a set of rules for a 
good sportsman. (7) The management of organ- 
izations (the class organizations, committees, 
clubs). For example, may the treasurer borrow for 
his own use the money of the club or class in his 
possession and not immediately needed by the club? 
The rationale of parliamentary law. The nature of 
businesslike procedure. Th^ rights of the minority. 
Responsibility for the performance of services once 
undertaken. The opportunities for service. Graft- 
ing. How small graft may lead to big. (8) Duties 
to schoolmates qua schoolmates : that is, forms of 
social service. The younger boy (including the 
problem of hazing). The friendless boy. The shy 
boy. (9) The vicious boy in the school: what to 



296 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

do with him; the attempt to reform him; ostracism; 
tale-bearing {cf. J. G. Holland's Arthur Bonnicas- 
tie) ; the ill-tempered boy. (10) Mutual help as the 
ideal of the school, and how it may be realized. 
How the poor school work of a few pupils holds 
back the entire class and in addition makes the best 
methods of teaching difficult to carry out. (The 
tactful teacher will know how to handle this two- 
edged sword). Aiding our schoolmates in work 
in which they are weak (dishonesty apart) ; the dan- 
ger of pauperizing and the necessity and limits of 
self-reliance. Mutual help outside of the class-room 
work. How far the ideals of the family can be 
realized in the school. (11) School spirit. Its 
value, and how to foster and preserve it. Loyalty 
to the school: in what does it consist and in what 
does it not consist. In what ways a boy may show 
his loyalty to the school. Our attitude toward dis- 
loyal pupils. Responsibility for our example; the 
direction in which we should throw our influence. 
(12) Loyalty on the part of the graduates, and how 
it may exhibit itself. (13) To whom we owe it as 
a duty to make the most of ourselves through our 
school work.* 

(V) The Remaining Duties of Special Rela- 



* I am under great obligation for material in sections il and 
iv to Dr. Henry Neumann, who was my collaborator in the 
first draft of this outline which appeared in the School Re- 
view, vol. 20, pp. 228-245. 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 297 

tionships. — (1) Our benefactors, individual and 
social. Ingratitude to the benefactors of the state or 
of humanity, suspicion of their motives on frivolous 
grounds. The experience of Washington (we here 
turn to the past to avoid controversy). (2) Evil- 
doers ; those who have wronged us, or other persons, 
or the community as a whole — how they should be 
regarded and treated. How to control the temper 
and how to drive resentment from our minds. Why 
we should make every effort to do so (review ques- 
tion, see I above). Forgiveness and revenge.* 
(3) Our rivals. Fair play. Jealousy and envy. 
How and why to uproot them. (4) The weak, the 
crippled, the blind, and similar unfortunates. (5) 
Respect for the aged; what is its basis. (6) The 
poor. How to help the poor. (7) The relation be- 
tween the sexes. The freedom of American social 
life as compared with the restrictions of Continental 
life, e. g. that of France (See e. g. Hamerton, 
Round My House, Chapter XV). Its value not 
merely for the pleasure and educational influences 
which flow from it, but above all as making possible 
the selection of husband or wife on a basis of 



* On this subject our pupils will talk cant — perhaps without 
being aware of it — unless we exercise great care. The belief 
in the justification of revenge is apparently far more wide- 
spread than seems to be commonly supposed. See an article 
on this subject in the International Journal of Ethics for 
April, 1910. The problem is a difficult one to deal with. Per- 
haps the best way is to show how men have been softened 
and sometimes morally saved because expected vengeance was 
not exacted. For examples see Smiles' Self-Help, p. 430. 



298 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

real knowledge of each other's qualities and in- 
terests. The conditions upon which this freedom 
can be maintained. The value of the family (par- 
tial review of II above). The conditions under 
which its existence can be maintained. The unfair- 
ness of enjoying its benefits without doing one's 
share to maintain it. The sacredness and mystery 
of life. The responsibilities which the parents have 
for the child, responsibilities the abuse or neglect of 
which carries with it consequences as serious as the 
crime of murder. The responsibility of parenthood 
in the light of eugenics. In addition to these topics 
the boys should certainly take up the question, 
how to control the sexual feelings and why. 
This could be dealt with along with the ques- 
tion: How can a person gain control of the ap- 
petite for alcohol, it being understood throughout 
the discussion that the appetite for alcohol is taken 
as the type of a number of more or less continuously 
recurrent feelings. In the course of this discussion 
the facts with regard to venereal diseases should un- 
questionably be presented. In addition I should not 
hesitate for a moment to present the essential facts 
about the life — and death — of the prostitute in 
order that the boys may clearly apprehend what 
sort of an institution it is which the libertine helps 
to keep in existence. The subject may be closed by 
a discussion of how and why to control the direc- 
tion of one's thoughts. The teacher will accomplish 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 299 

only half his task unless he gives boys who need it 
the opportunity to consult him privately. The nec- 
essary segregation for the discussion of these latter 
problems can perhaps be most easily obtained by de- 
ferring the discussion of them to the beginning of 
the second 3^ear of the course, when the class would 
perhaps better be divided anyway for the study of 
vocational ethics. Indispensable to the preparation 
for the discussion of all the problems of sexual 
morality will be found Professor Maurice A. Bige- 
low's Sex Education (the Macmillan Company, 
1916). (8) The problems involved in the treat- 
ment of animals. 

(VI) Duties to All Men as Such.— (1) "La pe- 
tite morale." Courtesy, politeness, and all other 
forms of kindness and expressions of respect in so- 
cial intercourse. Our attitude toward the unattractive 
and uninteresting; bores. (2) Veracity. (3) Faith- 
fulness to promises and contracts. (4) Regard for 
the reputation of others, both in the eyes of the com- 
munity and in our own; the difficulties in judging 
the motives of others; the bias produced by our 
own worse feelings; the duty, especially incumbent 
upon the educated, to suspend judgment in the ab- 
sence of conclusive evidence. How far it is possible 
and desirable to carry out the injunction, "Judge 
not." (5) Respect for property rights. The prob- 
lems as they present themselves in the high-school 
pupil's life. The indirect effects of theft, for exam- 



300 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

pie the theft of books from the open shelves of a li- 
brary. A comparison of the American and English 
schoolboy in the matter of respect for property 
rights. (6) Respect for life. The spirit which leads 
to murder as exhibited about us in every-day life and 
as it may be found in ourselves (this is intended, in 
part, as a preparation for the discussion of the sub- 
ject in business ethics). How far each one of us is 
responsible for premature deaths in the community 
through preventable diseases. (7) Duties of pos- 
itive service. They may be precisely as binding as 
the duty to refrain from inflicting actual injury 
upon others. William of Orange (later king of 
England) watched a mob kill the DeWitt brothers, 
when a few words from him might have saved them. 
He refrained from acting because they stood in the 
way of his ambition. (See the opening chapter of 
Dumas' Black Tulip.) Compare his culpability 
with that of Macbeth. The conditions under which 
positive service is a duty. Its various forms. The 
best help is that which helps others to help them- 
selves. "Am I my brother's keeper ?" "Who is my 
neighbor?" (8) International morality, with spe- 
cial reference to international peace. (9) World 
citizenship. Work for the progress of the race. 
Such progress is a fact. Its continuance depends 
on human effort to-day. If time permits it will 
be found very profitable to discuss the existence of 
human progress and the methods by which progress 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 301 

has taken place. See Tylor's Anthropology or 
Starr's First Steps in Human Progress. (10) The 
unity of the virtues. All virtue is service and at the 
same time means strength and attractiveness of in- 
dividual character. (11) What can we do to intro- 
duce more of the spirit of the family into the com- 
munity in which we live ? Why would such a result 
be desirable? What are the difficulties in the way? 
Why does it appear in time of war? (12) What 
can I do to prepare myself to live in right relation- 
ship with my fellow men? (a) Discovering what 
my own ideals really are. The attainment of im- 
partiality. The distinction between what we believe 
and what we believe we believe, and how to discover 
what the former really is. The influence of preju- 
dice and tradition. What attitude to take toward 
public opinion. (Consult Mrs. Cabot, Everyday 
Ethics, Chs. VI and VII.) (b) Learning to trace 
effects, (c) Learning to realize. Developing the 
imagination, including the ability to see things in 
the concrete. The relation of altruism to intellec- 
tual ability; see Wood's Study, referred to, Ch. 
XV, p. 240. (d) Cultivating habits of thought- 
fulness about the needs and interests of others. How 
far we are responsible for the effects of thought- 
lessness (in so far as it shows indifference on our 
part. What we care deeply about we are not very 
likely to forget). See Dewey and Tufts' Ethics, 
pp. 463 to 465. (e) Learning to see our fellow 



302 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

men as they really are. This is partly learning how 
to judge them (as above). It is also learning to 
see their potentialities as well as their actualities, 
and understanding why the latter often remain un- 
developed. This might have happened to any of us 
also. Preserving the proper balance in the estimiate 
of good and bad traits, (f) Recognition of the 
claims of personal and impersonal gratitude. Why 
we so constantly fail to do so. (g) Choosing good 
companions, (h) Learning how to manage the at- 
tention so as to keep the mind away from tempta- 
tion, (i) Becoming strong through exercise, (j) 
The relation of character to physical health. 

Illustrations from Veracity. — The following il- 
lustrations, taken from the field of veracity, may 
serve to suggest the kind of questions that may be 
formulated in dealing with the preceding problems. 

(1) (a) Is it possible to lie by other means than 
the use of words, for instance by actions? (b) Can 
a person lie by keeping silent? (c) By making no 
statement not in itself literally true, and yet omitting 
certain of the facts in the case?, (d) Did the boy 
lie who came in at three o'clock in the morning, and 
told his father the next day that he had come in at 
a quarter of twelve (three being a quarter of 
twelve)? (e) What, then, is a He? (2) May a 
statement made on insufficient evidence be a lie? 
(3) If a lie is detected it tends to destroy our confi- 
dence in the liar. Does it have any tendency to de- 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 303 

stroy our confidence in other persons also? (4) In 
what three ways does a detected He tend to lead 
other people to lie to the liar ? ( 5 ) How far do these 
tendencies operate to tempt people to lie to others 
besides the liar ? (6) If the lie has passed undetected 
does the liar suffer no loss in the amount of confi- 
dence which others have in him? (7) Why is it 
"easy to tell one lie, but difficult to tell only one" ? 
(8) What are the effects of lying upon the other 
elements of character? (9) Does the habit of lying 
tend to make us unreliable in our statements even 
when we intend to speak the truth? (10) What 
are the effects of lying upon our confidence in 
others? (11) What are the effects of exaggerated 
statements, known by all parties to be exaggerated 
(for instance, a person overwhelms you with ex- 
pressions of his gratitude at some trivial favor) ? 
(12) Does even a justifiable lie — assuming there is 
such a thing — have any of the bad consequences 
already discovered? (13) Is a lie ever justifiable? 
(14) Should we phrase the last question, "May I 
ever lie?" or should we rather inquire: "Is it ever 
necessary for me to lie?" and what is the difference 
between these two formulations? (15) May it be 
our duty to avoid the appearance of deceit, even 
when we are not being guilty of any deception? 
Make some suggestions as to ways in which this can 
be done. (16) By what devices do people often try 
to conceal from themselves the fact that they are ly- 



304 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

ing? (17) Why are they often genuinely angry 
when other persons tax them with lying? (18) 
Why is it considered a deadly insult deliberately to 
call a man a Har? (19) What are the most com- 
mon temptations to lie? (20) How can one avoid 
or conquer these temptations? (21) How can one 
strengthen his determination to be habitually truth- 
ful ? Give reasons for all answers and supply illus- 
trations wherever possible. 

It may perhaps not be amiss to add, in very sum- 
mary form, the answers which I think should be 
given to a few of the above questions. 

The nature of a lie (questions 1 and 2). A lie is 
an attempt to create in another person a belief which 
we ourselves do not hold. Cases (a) -(d), under 
( 1 ) differ solely as to the means used in making the 
attempt. It follows from the preceding that if I 
give out as certain what I regard as only probable, 
and as probable what I regard as only possible, I 
am lying. 

The effects of a lie (questions 3-12). Answers to 
(4) and (5): Through the spirit of retaHation, 
through example, through the alleged necessity of 
lying in self-defense. The last is perhaps seen most 
clearly in the business world. When the spirit of re- 
taliation can not wreak vengeance on the evil-doer it 
tends to turn upon entirely innocent parties. Thus if 
a man has a counterfeit coin passed on him by a 
street-car conductor, he is likely to want to get back 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 305 

at conductors in general, especially if he can't iden- 
tify and find the conductor who cheated him. (6) 
He loses an opportunity to increase the amount of 
confidence which others have in him. When a man 
tells the truth in the face of a manifest temptation to 
lie, others recognize in him a man who is truthful on 
principle, and the strength of their confidence in him 
will be increased by just that amount. There are 
some persons in whom we believe as in the rock of 
Gibraltar. This is because we have seen them, per- 
haps more than once, telling the truth in a tight 
place. (9) "He who is always anxious to tell the 
truth is always anxious to have the truth to tell." 
(10) "You can not believe in honor until you have 
achieved it. Better keep yourself clean and bright; 
you are the window through which you must see the 
world." (Bernard Shaw.) 

Is a lie ever justifiable (questions 12 and 
13) ? Problems involving a conflict of duties can 
only be solved by a comparison of the values in- 
volved. Life is more valuable in most cases than 
true beliefs. Hence in such instances, when to tell 
the truth would mean to cause loss of life there can 
be no doubt that the claims of life are to be regarded 
as higher than those of truth. The same principle 
applies in the following case suggested by President 
Hyde. Suppose a gossiping busybody or a mali- 
cious mischief-maker attempts to drag from you a 
secret entrusted to your care concerning a sin long 



306 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

since repented of, a secret which, if revealed, would 
bring ruin into an honorable life and cause terrible 
suffering to an innocent family. In this case again 
your obligation to protect your friend is higher than 
that to speak the truth. It must, however, be re- 
membered that in most cases some of the most seri- 
ous of the ill effects of a lie follow regardless of 
whether it can be justified, in the last resort, or not. 
For example, the physician who, with the best inten- 
tions in the world, makes a practise of assuring his 
patients it is well with them when in reality it is not 
is likely in the end to lose their confidence. Con- 
sequently the question is not May I lie? but Must 
I lie? — as a man would ask himself. Must (not 
may) I undermine my health in order to keep my 
business from going to pieces ? 

The conflict with the temptation to lie (questions 
19-21). For some aspects of this problem see Mrs. 
Ella Lyman Cabot's Everyday Ethics, Ch. XX. 

(VII) Vocational Ethics. — There are three 
fundamental relationships in the industrial world: 
(a) Server and served (customer) ; (b) employer and 
employee; (c) competitor and competitor. It will be 
convenient to begin with the last. ( 1 ) Is competi- 
tion war? (In war the end in view is destruction. 
Competition is constructive; it is a competition for 
the opportunity to serve. The injury done to the 
unsuccessful competitor is (in fair competition) an 
incident to efficient service. As the community is 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 307 

entitled to the best service that can be given it, the 
defeated rival has not been wronged.) (2) The 
place of competition in the industrial world. It is 
permitted by public opinion and law because (for 
reasons which the pupil should state) it is believed 
to be the most effective method of serving society. 
(3) If this view is correct an unselfish man may 
enter into the competitive struggle with a good con- 
science, provided he acts squarely on the principle : 
Let the best man win. (4) From the preceding 
follow the fundamental laws of fair competition. 
They exclude the use of force, fraud and breach of 
contract. (5) Forms of theft and murder that do 
not arouse sufficient moral indignation because their 
effects are remote and impossible definitely to lo- 
cate. See Ross, Sin and Society. (6) The moral- 
ity of "cut-throat" competition, i. e., of selling 
below cost to drive out a rival. This is unfair com- 
petition, because it aims to injure another without 
any compensating good to the community. The 
lowered price is only temporary, and the final out- 
come is the loss of an efficient servant; for if he 
had not been efficient he would have been eliminated 
by the process of fair competition. (7) The duty 
of raising the moral standards of our business or 
profession. Ways in which this can be done. See, as 
suggestive illustrations, the American Law School 
Review, Volume III, page 484 and elsewhere; the 
World's Work for August, 1913, page 384. (8) 



308 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

Duty to one's customers. "It is a part of the old 
creed that a man has a right to sell his goods to 
whom he pleases, at the prices he pleases, on the 
terms he pleases."* It is obvious that there are 
certain elements of truth in this position. There 
are also fundamental errors. What the latter are 
should appear from our preceding work, especially 
VI: (7). Service is in essence an obligation. The 
standard of Confucius in this matter and the stand- 
ard of Christ. The former thinks the following 
rule sufficient : Do not unto others what you would 
not have them do unto you. The "Golden Rule" 
of the latter demands positive service, where needed, 
equally with the refraining from injury. The lat- 
ter standard is slowly obtaining actual acceptance. 
The evolution of thought has reached this point in 
the case of the office of the king. It has gone some 
way in this direction in thb case of the professions 
of law and medicine. Certain trades are struggling 
to become professions and develop a code of pro- 
fessional ethics, as that of publishing newspapers. 
In this connection selected sections from the Canon 
of Professional Ethics of the American Bar Asso- 
ciation may be examined. Copies may be had on 
application to Mr. John Hinkley, Sec. A. B. A., 215 
N. Charles St., Baltimore, Md. The exclusion of 
the principle of service from commerce, manufac- 



* A. J. Eddy, in World's Work, vol. 24, p. 211 (1912). 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 309 

turing, transportation and farming is either purely 
arbitrary or else an admission that only those who 
are highly educated can rise to high moral standards. 
The latter alternative is inadmissible. As a matter 
of fact, this principle has been applied to business 
by English and American law for generations, 
through the doctrine of a "business affected with a 
public interest." On this see Wyman, The Control 
of the Market, Ch. VIII. It must be noted that law 
intervenes only where absolutely necessary. From 
the moral point of view there is no essential differ- 
ence between the principles upon which an electric 
lighting company should be conducted and a grocery 
store. (9) From the principle of service follow 
the laws of honesty, and, in general, of right rela- 
tions with one's customers. (10) Duties involved 
in purchasing. Here enter, for the woman at the 
head of the household, the problems raised by such 
organizations as the Consumers' League. In reality 
the business man ought to recognize that he is fre- 
quently in the same situation in making his pur- 
chases. (11) Duties of employees to employers. 
See H. N. Higinbotham, The Making of a Mer- 
chant (Chicago, Forbes and Company, 1906) ; G. H. 
Lorimer, Letters of a Self-Made Merchant to His 
Son (Boston, 1902) ; William Mathews, Getting on 
in the World (Chicago, 1874). (12) Duties of em- 
ployers to employees. See the remarkable series of 
articles by Miss Ida Tarbell in the American Maga- 



310 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 



sine, beginning in October, 1914. These have re- 
cently been republished in book form under the title 
New Ideals in Business, (the Macmillan Company, 
1916). (13) Duties of the business man, qua busi- 
ness man toward the state. Here enters the subject 
of bribe-giving for the sake of business favors, and 
to prevent "sand-bagging." Bribe-giving is treason. 
(14) The relation between business integrity and 
business success. Dishonesty not necessary for self^ 
defense. The confidence of others an asset of fun- 
damental importance. See The World's Work, Vol. 
1, p. 534; Vol. 10, p. 6437; Vol. 15, p. 9951; The 
World Today, Vol. 15, p. 852; John Graham 
Brooks' An American Citizen; The Life of W. H. 
Baldwin, Jr. (Houghton Mifflin, 1910). (15) Direct 
interest in others as a business asset. The habits 
of the hog not necessary for self-defense. See W. 
P. Warren's Thoughts on Business, First Series, 
passim (Chicago, Forbes & Company, 1907) ; The 
Outlook, Vol. 79, p. 165 ; Vol. 97, pp. 327, 367, 595 ; 
Vol. 99, p. 776; The World's Work, Vol. 6, p. 3520, 
and Vol. 22, p. 14465 ; Mathews' Getting on in the 
World, Ch. XI, and pp. 319-322; Lecky's Map of 
Life, Ch. JCV ; Emerson's Conduct of Life, essay on 
Behavior. (16) The moral basis of the institution 
of private property. 

On the ethics of competition, see : A. T. Hadley, 
Standards of Public Morality, Chs. II and III ; Les- 
lie Stephen, Sociad Rights and Duties, Vol. I, p. 133, 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 311 

The Morality of Competition; Page Lectures at 
Yale University, Morals in Modern Business: lec- 
ture on Competition, by Henry Holt (the same in 
'Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 102, p. 516) ; C. H. Cooley, 
Personal Competition, Its Place in the Social Order 
and Its Effects Upon Individuals, American Eco- 
nomic Association, Economic Studies, Vol. IV; 
Gladney, The Cyclops of Trade, Outlook, Vol. 101, 
pp. 257-262. 

(VIII) The Nature o£ a Successful Life. — 
Courses in morals have hitherto dealt solely with du- 
ties. We shall find it desirable, however, to add 
to the preceding work a survey of life from the point 
of view of its values. By this is emphatically not 
meant a presentation of the conflicting claims of 
Hedonism and Perfectionism, or of any other eth- 
ical "ism" whatever. What is proposed is rather 
an examination of the different good things in life, 
with a view to training the pupil to form some esti- 
mate of their relative value and to discovering the 
conditions upon which their attainment and reten- 
tion depend. Our list of subjects will include the 
pleasures of sense and amusements, "comfort" as 
an end in itself, success in the conventional sense of 
getting ahead of other people, social position, the 
glow and high spirits that are the product of perfect 
health, the beautiful in nature and art, the world of 
knowledge, work, friendship and love, the enthusi- 
asm for moral ideals, and, where practicable, the re- 



312 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

ligious life. We may conclude with a study of the 
relation of wealth to the attainment of these differ- 
ent ends. 

The study of this subject should be introduced 
into our course, first because of the direct contribu- 
tion it may make to the welfare of our pupils ; they 
are all too likely, through carelessness or prejudice 
due to a hasty judgment, or the influence of a super- 
ficial view of life in the community about them, or a 
dislike for effort, or ignorance of their own latent 
capacities, to ignore some goods of fundamental im- 
portance and to underestimate the value of some 
and overestimate that of others. The study of this 
subject is necessary in the second place because 
their conceptions of values will, through imitation 
and similar forces, help to determine the ideals of 
others, and, later in life, as heads of families and as 
citizens of the state, will guide, in large measure, 
their policy in such matters as education, and, to a 
certain extent, social legislation. In the third place, 
the possession of the various goods has — as will ap- 
pear from a moment's reflection — a far-reaching 
series of effects upon character. Sometimes the ef- 
fects are indirect, but they are none the less impor- 
tant. Thus a common interest in the world of 
beauty or knowledge is a very effective bond of 
union between husband and wife, and thereby, of 
course, strengthens the marriage tie. Furthermore, 
satisfaction in life, as such, apart from its special 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 313 

sources, has normally a most beneficent effect upon 
character, as tending to develop a kindly feeling to- 
ward one's fellow men; whereas dissatisfaction and 
disappointment tend to produce feelings of self- 
pity, envy and hatred. In the fourth place, the pur- 
suit of the most seductive, and at the same time the 
least satisfying goods, the pleasure of the senses, 
comfort, social position, and "success," together 
with their necessary condition in most circum- 
stances, wealth, is the source of the greater part of 
the wrong-doing in the world. Or to turn the same 
statement to the opposite side, the most valuable 
goods of life are, broadly speaking, non-competi- 
tive. Finally, the study proposed will disclose the 
fact that possession of some of the most precious 
of these goods is open to man only in proportion as 
he is pure in heart and unselfish in deed. This is 
notably true of friendship and love, as was long ago 
pointed out by Aristotle. The outcome of the course 
should be the possession of at least the rudiments 
of that wisdom without whicli mere knowledge and 
intellectual acuteness are a curse at once to their 
possessor and the world; or if we can not expect so 
much as this, at least something of the power to 
attain wisdom, and the habit of seeking it. 

What seems to have proved a satisfactory way of 
presenting this subject is the following: As the 
basis of work is taken an essay by some careful 
student of human life. This is mimeographed or 



314 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

printed and placed in the hands of the pupils, to- 
gether with a series of questions on the text. These 
questions are not intended to test the amount of 
memorizing which the pupil has done. They are in- 
tended first to elicit the meaning of the writer; sec- 
ond, to modify or correct his statements, wherever 
necessary; and finally to supplement them. The es- 
say, in other words, is intended merely to start the 
pupil thinking. 

An Illustration from Friendship. — As an illus- 
tration of methods and subject-matter in this de- 
partment of the work, a treatment of friendship is 
herewith presented. It is based upon selections 
from Books VIII and IX of Aristotle's Nicomach- 
ean Ethics. In this case a few explanatory notes 
upon the text will have to be added for the benefit of 
the student, dealing chiefly with the author's use 
of terms. 

(1) Can you think of other reasons for valuing 
friendship than those here given? If you can, ob- 
serve whether in the text which follows they have 
been anticipated in principle or not. (2) It is easy 
enough to see why we should congratulate a man 
who has many friends, but why should we praise 
him? (3) What are the two grounds on which, in 
Ch. I (Book VIII), Aristotle declares friendship to 
be valuable? Cf. Bacon's discussion of this subject 
in his Essay on Friendship (No. 27). (4) State 
the definition of friendship given in Ch. II. (5) II- 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 315 

lustrate Aristotle's distinction (in Ch. Ill) between 
caring for a person because of his usefulness to you, 
because of the pleasure he may give you, and because 
you admire him. Does this throw any light upon 
the distinction between the acquaintance and the 
friend in the proper sense of the word friend? 
(6) Is this statement of the grounds for friendship 
complete, i, e., if the ground upon which the third 
kind of friendship is based is admiration, can we 
not admire a person for other qualities besides his 
character? (7) Is it true that only those who pos- 
sess a moral quality can admire it in others, e. g., 
that only the brave admire courage? (8) Can 
you add anything to what Aristotle says about the 
importance of the moral element in friendship? 
(9) Is it true that admiration can by itself create 
friendship and keep it alive? Does Aristotle say it 
can? (10) Is it true that the good man is also 
useful to his friends and a pleasant companion? 
(11) Show that both parties to a genuine and per- 
manent friendship must be good men. (12) If 
Aristotle's general account of the basis of friendship 
is true, and the best friendships are possible only 
among the most highly developed persons, can a 
business man who slaves night and day in order to 
become rich, or, on the other hand, a mere idler, 
have good friends and be a good friend? (13) 
Cicero, in his Treatise on Friendship, Ch. VI, as- 
serts the existence of another condition of friend- 



316 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

ship, not yet explicitly mentioned. Friendship, he 
says, consists in "a perfect conformity of opinion in 
all religious and civic (social and political) subjects 
united with the highest degree of mutual esteem and 
affection." Is this conformity of opinion absolutely 
essential to friendship? (14) Aristotle asserts that 
the third kind of friendship (that based on good- 
ness) is necessarily permanent. Is this true? (a) 
Can it survive radical changes of opinion on the part 
of either friend? (b) the growth of one mind be- 
yond the powers of the other? (c) the desire for 
novelty, for new minds to explore? (15) (Ch. V.) 
Show that when evil reports circulate about a man 
of tried character, it will be those among his friends 
who are the best men who will be the last to believe 
them. (16) Can friendship survive the long-con- 
tinued separation of the friends? To answer this 
question get clearly before the mind the distinction 
between the friend and the well-wisher. (17) Is it 
true that in the friendships between the good "com- 
plaints and bickerings" are excluded? (Ch. XV). 
(18) If it takes time to create friendship, what is to 
be said of the advantages of friendships formed in 
youth? What are in general the advantages of such 
friendships? What are the disadvantages? (19) 
Can we apply these principles to true friendships 
between members of the same family? (20) Why 
is it that family affection or friendship is not more 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 317 

common? (21) Give a list of the minor causes in 
the way of mistakes in daily intercourse and of de- 
fects of character not yet enumerated which tend to 
destroy friendship and affection. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

THE SYSTEMATIC STUDY OF THE CONDUCT OF LIFE I 
METHODS AND RESULTS 

Methods in the High School. — The power and 
the habit of reflecting upon the moral issues of Hfe 
can be developed only by exercise. The nature of 
the exercise, however, will of course vary with the 
maturity of the children. In the high school the 
procedure employed will be systematic class discus- 
sion, a discussion led, but never dominated, by the 
teacher. These discussions must be preceded by 
careful preparation on the part of the pupil. Power 
can not be effectively developed by a series of mere 
pleasant talks. Apart from this consideration, to 
foster the habit of passing snapshot opinions upon 
moral matters would be, for those who are old 
enough to be capable of thinking, worse than to at- 
tempt to do nothing at all. The subject-matter will 
be supplied by a series of questions, which will be 
mimeographed or printed and distributed to the 
pupils in advance. Illustrations of what is meant 
were supplied in the preceding chapter. The pupils 
should be urged not merely to ;*eflect upon the prob- 

318 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 31? 

lems seriously by themselves, but to talk them over 
with their classmates and parents. There are cases 
where this has led to the first serious discussion 
about life between the boy and the father. In order 
to stimulate still further the activity of thought, the 
teacher will find it advisable to require the pupils 
to bring their answers to class in written form. The 
answers should be accompanied by a statement of 
the reasons upon which they are based. It should 
go without saying that all answers, however ab- 
surd or "shocking," should be received with uniform 
courtesy by the teacher and should be treated as sin- 
cere efforts to find the truth. A single sarcastic 
"fling" may close the mouths of most of the class 
for the remainder of the year. A single exhibition 
of "shocked feelings" may result iti a hundredfold 
harvest of cant. 

The last fourth or fifth of the period should be 
devoted, ordinarily, to the preparation of a written 
summary of the class discussion, the pupils writing 
their reports in loose-leaf note-books. It may be pos- 
sible to have this part of the work done at home. 
Wherever they are written the reports should be cor- 
rected by the teacher. The value of the intellectual 
training thus obtained, quite apart from the other 
advantages of this practise, is too obvious to need 
demonstration. 

Methods in the Elementary School. — In the 
elementary school two quite different methods are at 



320 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

our disposal. The first is a modification of that just 
described. It consists in class discussion of a se- 
lected topic. There will of course be no written 
preparation, nor will there be a series of set ques- 
tions. Since the period for systematic thinking has 
not arrived it can not be demanded, and its absence 
will do no harm. Bad habits, mental and otherwise, 
appear when a power, is misapplied, and, therefore, 
do not appear when it is non-existent. An informal 
discussion of some aspect of the moral life, then — 
it is this to which the moral instruction hour will be 
devoted. If in the upper grades some little previous 
reflection is desired, the topic can be announced two 
or three days in advance. In some cases the children 
may also be encouraged to talk the problems over 
■with their parents, though before doing this one 
should perhaps know something of the parents. 

The second method is that of story-telling. In 
this the moral life is brought before the child's men- 
tal eyes by means of a narrative. In this concrete 
form moral principles can be easily understood by a 
young child. The issues of conduct and the nature 
of the traits of character which produce it can be 
both seen and realized. The specific aims are in the 
main to reveal the nature of moral excellence, to 
arouse admiration for the good, and to awaken the 
mind to the consequences of right action for self and 
others. 

Jhe great master of this method is Mr. F. J. 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 321 

Gould, to whom reference was made in the preced- 
ing chapter. In the introduction to the Gould- 
Sharp Syllabus for the elementary school he has laid 
down the following principles for the guidance of 
the teacher. 

1. Lessons must not be mere strings of stories. 
Each lesson should have a definite aim, toward 
which all the illustrations lead. That is to say, a les- 
son must be a construction. 

2. True incidents are far preferable to fiction. 
However, time-honored legends should not be ex- 
cluded, since their continued appeal to the popular 
mind through the centuries shows that they embody 
fundamental truths about life. 

3. Examples of good conduct have a finer influ- 
ence than condemnation of bad. Therefore, seek 
to make temperance, mercy, trustworthiness, ad- 
mirable rather than take up much time in talking 
against intemperance, cruelty and falsehood. 

4. The illustrations may be chosen from any 
period of human history, and any country, and any 
race. Noble lives and deeds connected with the vil- 
lage, city or district in which the school is situated 
should be specially recalled and appreciated. 

5. As a rule, the lessons should be applicable to 
both boys and girls, and care should be exercised 
to include examples of feminine life and ideals. 

6. A topic should not be used in order to point 
blame at a particular child, or the class in general. 



322 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

7. Stones should be told dramatically, yet con- 
cisely, avoiding details which would cause the cen- 
tral thought to be obscured. 

8. The blackboard should be freely used, though 
elaborate and exact drawings are neither necessary 
nor helpful. 

9. The terms of the moral vocabulary should be 
employed either very sparingly or not at all. Thus 
the words "character" and "service" are not to be 
perpetually obtruded, just as the phrase "moral les- 
sons" may seldom be repeated. One may give many 
lessons on civic duty and scarcely ever use the word 
"patriotism," and yet the temper of consecration to 
one's duty and country may permeate the teaching 
and inspire the pupils. 

10. Moral suggestions from stories should be 
briefly noted on the blackboard during the course of 
the story-telling; and moralising and exhorting at 
the close should be strictly refrained from. 

11. It is not desirable in the elementary school 
to make this subject a source for written composi- 
tions, though the Individual stories may be so em- 
ployed. Nor Is the theme of personal and social 
conduct suited to the test of formal examination. 

The story-telling method is not recommended 
merely or primarily because it Is an interesting way 
of bringing home moral truths to the child's mind. 
"If, as has been suggested above, the incidents se- 
lected are true, i. e., taken from history and biog- 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 323 

raphy, or if the legends told are such as embody 
truths approved by national and racial conditions, 
the stories narrated from year to year will provide, 
if adapted to the child's capacity, a moral revelation 
of life itself, i. e., a representation of the moral ideal 
as embodied in the actual world of conduct. The 
teacher, therefore, will continually say, 'Such and 
such things have been done,' rather than say, *Such 
and such things ought to be done.' This reference 
to reality and social conviction helps one to dispense 
with moralizing and excludes a great deal of un- 
profitable argument arising out of cases drawn from 
supposition, or from works of fiction. And again, 
when difficult themes, e. g., forgiveness, are treated, 
the examples may be laid before the children as 
having undoubtedly occurred, and their moral in- 
fluence may be left to work upon the young affection 
and reason, without adding injunctions to practise 
the virtue illustrated in the stories." 

Each of these methods has advantages of its own. 
The former makes use of the materials supplied di- 
rectly by the child's own experience and observation. 
It arouses and exercises his ability to think about 
life, with all this statement implies. On the other 
hand, the story, if told as Mr. Gould tells it, contin- 
uously enlists the cooperation of the children's 
minds. Its content may always serve as material 
for as much discussion as is desired. And while it 
is not an expression of the direct observation of the 



324 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

child it has precisely the advantages as well as the 
disadvantages of this fact. Books, it has been said, 
are windows opening out into the world. They 
show us those parts of life which are beyond our 
experience, and thereby broaden our outlook and 
correct our provincialisms. The story performs 
exactly the same function. If properly selected and 
told it will contain nothing which has no analogy 
whatever in the child's experience; otherwise it 
will be unintelligible and in consequence uninter- 
esting. The good story describes the unknown in 
terms of the known, it carries the young listeners 
beyond the hitherto seen as does a book of travel. 
A properly chosen series of stories will in the end do 
what haphazard experience is not at all likely to do 
— bring before the child all the significant features 
of the moral life that his mind is capable of grasp- 
ing. In so doing it will exhibit traits of character 
which he may have had no opportunity to see, or 
having seen, has never noticed, and thus arouse in 
him, after the fashion possible for a child's mind, 
the desire to be a member of the world's great order 
of chivalry. With these facts in view, my conclu- 
sion is that the wise teacher will use both methods,* 
Place in the Curriculum. — In most schools 
where systematic courses in morals are actually be- 

*For Mr. Gould's account of his own methods and the 
principles underlying them, consult his Moral Instruction, Its 
Theory and Practice, New York (1913), Longmans, Green & 
Co. The book contains stenographic notes of ten lessons. 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 325 

ing given, the class exercise takes place once a week. 
This is perhaps a sufficient allotment of time for the 
grades. It might serve to meet the fundamental 
necessities in the high school also if continued 
throughout the entire course. But if the time avail- 
able for moral instruction in the first two years is to 
be devoted to studies in biography and social prog- 
ress (as I think it should be) more than a period a 
week will be needed to obtain satisfactory results 
from the systematic work. If the method of lectur- 
ing or memorizing from books is strictly refrained 
from, and the pupils are compelled to work out their 
conclusions for themselves, two recitation periods 
per week through two years — preferably, I think, 
the junior and senior years — represent the minimum 
amount of time that should be devoted to the sub- 
ject. The arrangement whereby the work extends 
over two years is better than assigning to it five days 
in a week for a year, because some parts of the 
course are more appropriate to the junior year ; for 
example, that dealing directly with school life ; while 
other parts are difficult to give satisfactorily in any 
other than the senior year, such as those dealing 
largely with the future, as the study of business eth- 
ics and of success. 

Practically all the work in the grades is and ought 
to be required. That being the case, there is no rea- 
son, indeed no possibility, of placing moral instruc- 
tion upon any other footing than that of the rest of 



326 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

the class work. With regard to the high school, 
although well aware that it introduces some admin- 
istrative difficulties, I have always had a preference 
for making moral instruction an elective course. 
In this of all subjects, I want no one in the room 
who does not want to be there. I feel more strongly 
that all marks should be abolished except Passed and 
Not Passed. This policy, like everything else, has 
its disadvantages. But it has the immeasurable ad- 
vantage of relieving the pupils from all temptation 
to say or write what they think v^ill please the 
teacher; and their attention has a chance to concen- 
trate itself upon the problem in hand, rather than 
upon the impression they are making upon him. 

How to Find Room in the Overcrovirded Cur- 
riculum. — "How are you going to find room for 
such a course in the already overcrowded curricu- 
lum?" There are several answers to this frequently 
repeated inquiry. The first one is that there is al- 
ways time for those things which we consider of 
first importance. If we think that intellectual devel- 
opment and knowledge are the only things of value 
we shall assuredly find no time whatever for the 
cultivation of character. If we think the latter is of 
equal value with the former (to put the matter con- 
servatively), we shall find no difficulty in setting 
aside a recitation period a week for it in the ele- 
mentary school, taking it from time allotted to read- 
ing and composition. With the same proviso we 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 327 

shall find it possible to set aside ten per cent, of the 
time in the junior and senior years of the high school 
for the purpose ; the more so since there is no abso- 
lute antithesis between intellectual and moral train- 
ing, the latter, when properly conducted, contribut- 
ing as effectively to the training of the intellect as 
does history or mathematics. 

This statement may perhaps appear to some read- 
ers as true rather than helpful. To be more defi- 
nite, then, the two periods per week required for 
the course in moral instruction in the Wisconsin 
High School in the junior and senior years during 
the years 1911-1915 were taken from the Enghsh 
course. This reduction of the English work to 
three hours per week was considered desirable by 
the school authorities on grounds which were en- 
tirely independent of the claims of moral instruc- 
tion. They believed that the study of English five 
days in the week for four years palls on the ma- 
jority of the pupils, and that actually better results 
in English would be obtained by a cut to three reci- 
tations per week for the last half of the course. 
Furthermore, they recognized that the time devoted 
to the course in "applied ethics," as it was called, 
was by no means lost to English. Much writing- 
is required that can be examined by the English 
teacher, just as can any other form of composi- 
tion. Furthermore, they realized that the systematic 
study of life may contribute greatly to the creation 



328 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

of those intellectual abilities and to the formation 
of those intellectual habits which make real interpre- 
tation of literature, and with it intellectual appre- 
ciation, possible. 

Professor Woodberry in The Appreciation of Lit- 
erature. Chapter I, writes as follows : "Openness to 
experience, or sensibility, is the prime quality of a 
good reader. . . . The appreciation of literature 
is thus by no means a simple matter; it is not the 
ability to read, nor even a canon of criticism and 
rules of admiration and censure that is required; 
but a live soul, full of curiosity and interest in life, 
sensitive to impressions, acute and subtle in recep- 
tion, prompt to complete the suggestion, and always 
ready with the light of its own life to serve as a 
lamp unto its feet." Add to the above the fact 
that for the most part we see only what we are 
looking for and it becomes obvious that a systematic 
course in the laws of life is the best possible train- 
ing for literary appreciation and may be of no mean 
assistance in understanding the really important 
movements in history. 

The Problem of Legal Requirement. — Closely 
related with the preceding is the question whether 
the school authorities should be compelled to find a 
place for it by law, and whether in the absence of 
law the teacher unwilling to undertake the task 
should be compelled to do so by the principal or 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 329 

superintendent. This problem is not a simple one, 
for there is a good deal to be said on both sides. 

On the one hand it seems self-evident that no 
teacher should be entrusted with this work or should 
take it on his own responsibility unless he possesses 
certain qualifications for the task. A person's ideals 
for others seldom rise much higher than his ideals 
for himself. Hence the teacher who is tricky, base, 
or selfish will only demoralize his pupils. He in 
whose eyes happiness is identical with the possession 
of wealth will only make of them shallow-brained 
Philistines. Of almost equal importance is the ab- 
sence of a cynical or pessimistic spirit. Moral in- 
struction exists to point out unnoticed or unrealized 
values, the things in life that are worth while, and 
that call upon us for precisely this reason to re- 
nounce for their sake passing v/hims and inclina- 
tions, and sometimes important interests of our 
own. He who is to guide the young to the discovery 
of these truths must accordingly himself be an "af- 
firmer of life." This does not mean he must think 
it perfect. H it were, why struggle to make things 
better? His creed must rather be, in George Eliot's 
term, meliorism, the belief that life can be made 
worth while by manfully struggling with its inade- 
quacies and evils. Finally results of any significance 
will be obtained only by the teacher who succeeds 
in proving by his conduct as well as by his attitude 



330 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

and manner that he has a genuine interest in the 
welfare of his pupils. Many young people, par- 
ticularly those of high-school age, tend to look upon 
the demands of the moral ideal as arbitrary com- 
mands imposed upon them from without, a burden 
upon the will which he who has his wits about him 
will evade or shake off. In their new-found free- 
dom they decline to be "worked" by any of our fine 
phrases. This view, of course, is totally false. In 
reality, as we have seen, the demands of morality 
are the voice of our deepest and most permanent 
admirations and desires. What we teachers are try- 
ing to do is to reveal to our young charges their own 
needs and desires and show them how these may be 
realized. But the freedom-intoxicated members of 
our classes will turn their backs upon us and refuse 
to look where we point except as they are first con- 
vinced that we really have their interests at heart. 
The existence of this interest on our part and their 
confidence in its existence is thus a necessary condi- 
tion of success. From this point of view, then, 
moral instruction should be conducted only by cer- 
tain teachers possessed of special qualifications for 
the work. 

The advantages of a system of compulsion bear- 
ing equally upon all teachers, on the other hand, are 
by no means inconsiderable, while the evils are less 
than they appear at first sight. Many teachers hesi- 
tate to undertake the work, many superintendents to 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 331 

introduce it, either from diffidence of their own pow- 
ers, indifference to the issues involved, or skepticism 
as to results. All three may disappear after some lit- 
tle experience. We have seen that when men enter 
settlement work or other forms of philanthropy 
with no higher motives than curiosity, desire for a 
new sensation, or a mere want of something better 
to do, it often happens that imperceptibly the work 
gets a hold upon their interests, transforming their 
own character and making them devoted to the 
cause for its own sake. The same thing has hap- 
pened more than once in the field of moral instruc- 
tion. The teacher through his teaching comes to a 
new view of the moral world, discovers islands and 
continents hitherto to him unknown. Hence his 
attitude toward that world and his pupils may be- 
come revolutionized, and the needed qualifications 
gradually appear, to the enrichment of his own life 
and that of others. Diffidence, in its turn, will dis- 
appear with experience. The work is not so difficult 
to do as it appears to be when you stand on the 
dock before jumping in. After the course is well 
started the pupils themselves take a great part of 
the burden from the instructor's shoulders. Give 
them something to talk about which is worth while 
and within the range of their experience, and the 
difficulty is in getting them to stop. Skepticism, 
as will be shown later, seems to be characteris- 
tic of those who have never made a practical trial. 



332 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

The good effects of a policy of compulsion exerted 
by the state, with a slowly but constantly increasing 
rigor, seem to be shown in France. The situation 
there was for years deplorable. No one knew what 
to do, text-books were over the heads of the pu- 
pils, few teachers or administrative officers were 
greatly interested, or had much faith in the move- 
ment. But the difficulties of the situation had to be 
met, and there is evidence they are being met with 
more intelligence and interest and, in places, enthu- 
siasm than ever before. 

While all this is true the evil effects of putting 
the moral nurture of children in the hands of ineffi- 
cient and indifferent teachers, with shallow, narrow 
or perverted views of life, are so great that person- 
ally I can not reconcile myself to the policy of requir- 
ing this work by law or of demanding it indiscrimi- 
nately of all teachers by the fiat of the superintendent. 
In one city with which I am acquainted the superin- 
tendent selects certain teachers in the elementary 
schools and also in the high school to conduct the 
courses in morals, according to their ability and 
their interest in the subject. This system works ex- 
tremely well. 

An additional reason why compulsion would work 
less satisfactorily in this country than in France is 
the absence here of a permanent body of teachers. 
Just as the ineffective teacher begins to mellow she 
marries or he goes into the real estate business. 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 333 

The Pupils' Interest in the Work. — Children 
and young people from perhaps the very beginning 
of school age are tremendously interested in life, 
if the life described and discussed is sufficiently near 
their own experience to have a real meaning for 
them. With this proviso, they are just as much 
interested in the moral aspects of life as in any 
other. They may not care to listen merely to the 
praise of its excellence, they may not care to be 
advised or exhorted, still less will they desire to be 
made the target for blame. But as we have seen, 
these things no more belong to moral instruction 
than to the study of literature. 

Most children in the elementary schools care far 
more about the moral aspect of experience, provided 
always it is presented to them in the concrete, than 
for almost any other part of the curriculum. Do 
they not with great frequency vigorously discuss 
moral questions : — -Did so and so play fair ? Did 
he do his fair share of the work? Did his mother 
have any right to forbid him to do this? Or his 
father have any right to punish him for that ? The 
active child, animated with a good spirit, is often 
glad to discover new opportunities for service, and 
likes to be set to questioning experience. He greets 
with enthusiasm heroic deeds, and lives more joy- 
ously in the atmosphere which they create and feels 
more at home in it than in any other save that of 
the playground. 



334 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

In the high-school period the horizon broadens 
and at the same time, for many children, the inter- 
est deepens. Striking evidence of this fact is of- 
fered by the success of the movement inaugurated 
by the high-school section of the Young Men's 
Christian Association, whereby high-school boys are 
brought together an evening a week to discuss, 
under the leadership of some older person, ordi- 
narily a teacher or school principal, the problems 
of living. On the basis of his wide experience as 
the national leader of this work Mr. D. R. Porter 
writes as follows: "There is no question that in 
many high schools the moral standards are lower 
than in the community at large, nevertheless there 
is a sign of promise as bright as the present is dark. 
And that is the remarkable responsiveness of the 
boys themselves when the opportunity is given them 
to rally for higher things. In most cases evils exist 
because boys are ignorant and not because they are 
vicious. In the schools where the crusade for truth 
and purity has been started among the boys them- 
selves, there is no difficulty in winning support. 
. . . It is being found that as an actual fact 
larger numbers of thinking high-school boys can be 
enrolled for the group study of life questions and 
the practical phases of the Bible than can be enrolled 
in voluntary gymnasium classes."* 

This testimony may be supplemented by a few 

* Religious Education, vol. 4, p. 197. 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 335 

of the many concrete illustrations of interest in the 
work, on the part of high-school pupils, which have 
come under my observation. In one city at the 
middle of the year it was necessary to change the 
hour for a girls' elective gymnastic class so that it 
conflicted with the moral instruction. Of the seven 
girls affected by the change five chose to continue 
the moral instruction. In another place, a city far 
enough north to have many dark, cold and snowy 
morniligs during the winter, the only time that could 
be found for the work one year was the hour be- 
fore the opening of school. The course was elective 
and without credit. Nevertheless, of the two upper 
classes to whom it was open all the seniors and al- 
most all the juniors, a total of about fifty, took the 
course and attended with the utmost regularity once 
a week throughout the year. In still another school 
a bright but very lazy boy, one not interested at all 
in most of his studies, was kept in the school till 
his graduation solely by his desire to take the work 
in moral instruction. 

Its Effects. — In much of our school work it is 
impossible to demonstrate results. All we can do 
is to determine as carefully as possible whether cer- 
tain instrumentalities are calculated to produce cer- 
tain effects, and leave the outcome to faith. How- 
ever, such a procedure is unsatisfactory, and we are 
not shut up to it in the field of morals. 

There is a great deal of loose talk about the in- 



336 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

effectiveness of "mere words" to awaken the latent 
forces of character. No one can accuse the author 
of overpartiaHty to exhortation. Nevertheless he 
is prepared to assert that even exhortation, if so 
conducted as to open the eyes to the significance of 
moral issues, may have a real influence on character. 
As evidence of the truth of this statement the fol- 
lowing testimony of John Tyndall may be of in- 
terest : 



"The reading of the works of two men, neither 
of them imbued with the spirit of modern science, 
neither of them, indeed, friendly to that spirit, has 
placed me here to-day. These men are the English 
Carlyle and the American Emerson. I must ever 
remember with gratitude that through three long, 
cold German winters Carlyle placed me in my tub, 
even when ice was on its surface, at five o'clock 
every morning, not slavishly, but cheerfully, meet- 
ing each day's studies with a resolute will, deter- 
mined, whether victor or vanquished, not to shrink 
from difficulty. I never should have gone through 
analytical geometry and the calculus had it not been 
for those men. I never should have been a physical 
investigator, and hence without them I should not 
have been here to-day. They told me what I ought 
to do in a way that caused me to do it, and all my 
consequent intellectual action is to be traced to this 
purely moral source. To Carlyle and Emerson I 
ought to add Fichte, the greatest representative of 
pure idealism. These three unscientific men made 
me a practical scientific worker. They called out 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 337 

*Act!' I barkened to the summons, taking the Hb- 
erty, however, of determining for myself the direc- 
tion which effort was to take."* 

If the reading of the sermons of the great preach- 
ers can produce such effects as are here described 
in a soil fitted for the reception of their influence, 
the study of the beauty and glory of the moral life, 
though conducted by teachers of less compelling 
eloquence, may be expected to have some effects. 
It is the unanimous testimony of those who have 
tried it — as far as I am aware — that such is the 
case. Some references to printed statements are the 
following : Sophie Bryant, The Teaching of Moral- 
ity, pp. vi, vii (girls' schools in England) ; Sadler, 
Moral Instruction and Training in the Schools, Vol. 
I, pp. 19, 230, 290, 309, 312 (English experiences) ; 
Arlo Bates, Talks on Teaching Literature, p. 22 ; F. 
W. Johnson, Problems of Boyhood, p. xvii. I will 
quote the statement of Mr. Johnson. As will be 
remembered, he is headmaster of the University of 
Chicago High School. Since 1911 he has been 
leader of a Discussion Club which meets one eve- 
ning a week under the auspices of the Young Men's 
Christian Association. Its members are boys from 
his own school. Concerning this club he wrote, 
after three years' experience : 



* From an address to the students of University College, 
London. 



338 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

"It has been gratifying to observe, during the three 
years since the Discussion Club has been in exist- 
ence, a steady improvement in the moral tone of the 
school in such matters as involve honesty in the re- 
lations of pupils with each other and with their 
teachers, respect for property rights, good sports- 
manship, clean speech, which may be fairly traced 
in no small degree to the discussion of these topics. 
Tangible results may be seen in a written agreement 
entered into by a considerable number of boys not 
to tell 'smutty' stories nor willingly to listen to 
such stories from others, an agreement which the 
writer did not suggest and of which he had no 
knowledge until after it had been made." 

All the principals who have done this work or 
in whose schools it has been conducted tell, as far 
as I am aware, the same story. They have told me 
of its influence in breaking up grafting in school 
activities, in raising the tone of interscholastic ath- 
letics, in putting an end to cribbing, among other 
ways by inspiring the honest to take the matter into 
their own hands through the class organization, in 
producing a more serious attitude toward studies, 
in bringing about a better relationship between the 
boys and girls, and in cutting down the amount of 
smoking. An interesting feature of the situation 
thus described is that, in the cases reported to me, 
no direct reference has been made to any of the 
above matters except the first two. The results rep- 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 339 

resented the spontaneous application to their own 
Hves of insight gained in deahng with other subjects. 
I can not beHeve that the results here presented are 
exceptional. In the report of an extensive inves- 
tigation made a few years ago Mr. Clifford Barnes 
notes "the universally favorable attitude of those 
teachers who have had experience in this method 
of instruction." {Proceedings of National Educa- 
tion Association, ipop, p. 140). Such unanimity 
of opinion certainly points to the attainment of re- 
sults. 

With such facts before him, however, the teacher 
must not suppose that if results do not appear 
his work has been in vain. It constantly hap- 
pens that moral influences come out into the light 
of day and demonstrate their existence only after 
years of apparent quiescence. The most valuable re- 
sults from his work, as has already been pointed out, 
are not to be found in the spectacular reformation 
of the bad, but rather in a heightened sense of re- 
sponsibility and a new desire for positive service on 
the part of those who have the capacity for the 
highest attainments in the world of character. 

One effect of moral instruction must not be over- 
looked in this enumeration. It gives the teacher a 
remarkable insight into the character of his pupils. 
The principal of a high school testifies that this 
knowledge is of so much value to him in managing 



340 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

the school that apart from every other considera- 
tion it compensates him many times over for the 
time and effort it costs him. 

Moral Instruction and Moral Training. — No 
moral progress is possible without action. Knowl- 
edge must awaken feeling, and this latter find for 
itself an habitual channel to action, or the result 
is one of those two monstrosities, the moral pedant, 
stuffed with knowledge which he never thinks of 
using, or the still more repellent and hopeless senti- 
mentalist. Does this mean that there can be no 
training in moral thought fulness without the intro- 
duction of some of the systems of training described 
in the earlier chapters of this book? By no means. 
For if the work of the class room is kept in close 
contact with the actual life of the pupil, there is 
plenty of opportunity for thought and desire to pass 
into act. The teacher must look for effects in such 
things as greater seriousness of purpose among his 
pupils, and higher standards of action in matters 
of courtesy, self-control, honesty in work, in the 
management of moneys, in competitive sports, in 
school politics. Through a parent-teacher associa- 
tion, or otherwise, he must assure himself that sim- 
ilar changes are taking place in the home. If not, 
he must modify his course till they do. 

From these statements, however, it does not fol- 
low that training in habits of action is of small im- 
portance. The very contrary is the case, especially 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 341 

when it forms part of a course in which training in 
habits of reflection upon conduct forms an equally 
important factor. Two times one, as I have already 
insisted, are usually anywhere from four to forty. 
In accordance with this indisputable fact it is cer- 
tain that in the union of the two methods of train- 
ing in habits of action and training in habits of 
moral thought fulness is to be found the solution of 
the problem of moral education, the production of 
an influence making for character building of a po- 
tency adequate to the issues at stake. 



Part IV: The Home 

CHAPTER XIX 

MORAL EDUCATION IN THE HOME 

The Fundamental Aims and Methods o£ Moral 
Education the Same in the Home and the School. 

— Since the moral spirit is one, and the child in 
the home is the same being that he is in the school, 
the fundamental aims and (in essence) methods of 
moral education will be identical, whoever conducts 
it and under whatever conditions it may be carried 
on. All that needs to be done in this chapter, there- 
fore, is to point out the principles and make some 
suggestions with regard to their application by par- 
ents. The most fundamental principles of moral 
education, as I conceive them, are stated above in 
Chapters II, V, XI, XII, XIII and XVI. I shall not, 
of course, attempt to repeat, even in summary, the 
contents of these portions of the book. All I can do 
is to show what form they take when applied to 
the problems raised by the children in the home. 

The Value of General Principles as a Guide to 
Practise.— Aristotle defined virtue (or excel- 
lence, as we ought to translate the word he used) 
as a mean between two extremes. Bunyan put the 

342 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 343 

same thing more picturesquely when he represented 
Christian's way toward the Heavenly City as a nar- 
row path between a very deep ditch on the right 
hand and a very dangerous quag on the left. This 
picture enables us to represent quite accurately the 
relation of all principles, including educational prin- 
ciples, to life. They can tell us in what direction 
the Heavenly City lies. They can suggest reasons 
why, fleeing in all haste from the City of Destruc- 
tion, we should repair thither, at whatever cost. 
But beyond this their field of usefulness is an ex- 
tremely limited one. For the correct application of 
them to a concrete situation involves the ability to 
see a narrow and crooked path, sometimes, to be 
sure, at noonday, but often in the late twilight, not 
infrequently in the blackness of a starless night. 
In what follows, accordingly, I make no preten- 
sions to pointing out the path which the parent is 
to follow. I know how hopeless any such attempt 
would be, not merely from the general considera- 
tions just stated, but also from my own experience. 
I shall confine myself, therefore, to the statement 
of a few generalities. If they prove of no other 
value to the reader, at least it may fortify his soul 
to know that though he falters some one else believes 
them to be so. 

Example. — I should never have had the cour- 
age to write about so trite a subject as the influence 
of example if I had not witnessed the following inci- 



344 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

dent with my own eyes. Two parents exceptionally 
intelligent and very well educated, with the highest 
standards in their own lives (generally speaking) 
and (again generally speaking) with the highest 
ideals, moral as well as cultural, for their children, 
had a daughter who was decidedly undersized. 
When she was about sixteen years old she took a 
railroad journey, and traveled under directions to 
pass herself off as under twelve so that she might 
get through on a half-fare ticket. The girl has good 
stuff in her, and will doubtless not be wrecked by 
the experience. But no one thing that the parents 
can ever do for her will neutralize the effects of that 
journey. In a town where children over six riding 
in the street-cars pay full fare a friend of mine once 
heard a woman tell the conductor that her child was 
six. "Why, no, mother," piped up the youngster, 
"don't you remember I was seven my last birthday?" 
This woman probably whipped the child on reaching 
home; then a month later whipped him again for 
lying or stealing. 

When a child sees his father treat his mother like 
a boor, how is he Hkely to treat his sisters ? When 
the conversation at the dinner table consists chiefly 
of malicious gossip, innuendoes, sarcastic flings at 
neighbors or relatives, a cynical interpretation of 
other people's motives, assumptions that what the 
parent speaking does must be right and that any 
one who denies it must be either a fool or a knave 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 345 

— with what views of life and of himself is he likely 
to grow up? It is not merely the explicit words 
and outer actions to which children are sensitive. 
They are often acute observers and can see beneath 
the show of external respectability of word and de- 
meanor the worm-eaten character which lies below. 
If, then, we wish our children to be courteous, hon- 
orable, true, loyal and generous in spirit the funda- 
mental condition is to be these things ourselves. If 
we lack these qualities we must proceed to acquire 
them. 

As your child must see you respect the rights of 
others and respect yourself, so he must find you in 
your relations to him truth-loving, just, charitable 
and s)mipathetic. Such an extraordinary statement 
as "I'll cut your tongue out if you tell me a lie!" 
should perhaps not be regarded as deception. But 
threats less savage than these are constantly made 
that are never carried out. What does most harm, 
perhaps, because it rankles longest, is injustice in 
punishment. Professor Dewey once made a collec- 
tion of the youthful experiences of his students in 
this matter.* One boy was whipped for taking his 
father's tobacco and using it. No questions were 
asked and no explanations given. The boy thought 
his father whipped him because he wanted the to- 
bacco himself. A girl saved pennies which her 



* The Chaos in Moral Training, Popular Science Monthly, 
vol. 45, pp. 433-443. 



346 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

father had given her to take to Sunday-school and 
bought a valentine with them which she gave him 
to surprise him. The father threw this into the 
iire first, and then punished her, taking it for 
granted that she knew she was doing wrong. Not 
even after that, however, did she feel it was wrong, 
but rather felt indignant and humiliated that her 
father had treated her gift in such a way. Professor 
Dewey rightly regards these incidents as illustra- 
tions of chaos in moral training. To the child pun- 
ishment is unjust unless he believes it to be deserved, 
either on the ground of his own understanding of 
what he has done, or through faith in the explicit 
assurances of his father, a faith based upon an un- 
broken experience of fair treatment. Few things 
that the parent can do will have a worse effect upon 
a child than inflicting undeserved punishment. The 
effect of such treatment upon one of Professor Dew- 
ey's students was that he longed to become old 
enough to retaliate. One way to avoid such trage- 
dies is not to permit one's self to punish in wrath. 

Justice to our children requires that we show our 
pleasure at their good conduct where it is the prod- 
uct of effort or other sacrifice as well as displeasure 
at the bad. A child, for example, strives for ages, 
that is to say, two days, to wipe his feet on enter- 
ing the house, to chew his food, not to shovel his 
food into his mouth with his knife, not to interrupt 
conversation, not to shout under the window when 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 347 

his mother is taking a nap. In forming and carry- 
ing out these heroic resolves he perhaps schools 
his courage to the sticking point by the thought: 
"Won't mother be pleased !" And then — she shows 
no recognition whatever of his heroism, but only 
scolds him for spattering water over the bathroom 
floor ! Put yourself in his place, remembering that 
to the youthful eye small things (as we regard 
them) are great, and you will realize that he feels 
not merely disappointed and grieved, but also in- 
dignant. And you ought to know that one of the 
(doubtless many) threads which bind your child to 
you has been broken by your thoughtlessness. 

Companionship. — After example as an influ- 
ence comes companionships — or rather on a level 
with it. Certainly good example gets a large share 
of its power because it Is the example of one who 
is loved. And love — in the proper sense of that 
term — is in both child and adult largely dependent 
for sustenance upon companionship. Furthermore, 
many of the parent's acts of injustice which rankle 
for years in a child's mind are due to a misunder- 
standing of the child's nature or attitude which 
would never have arisen if they had been chums. 
The mother who is going to have a genuinely posi- 
tive effect upon the ideals and conduct of her chil- 
dren must be to a greater or less extent their com- 
panion. She must be acquainted to a considerable 
degree with their school work and the other condi- 



348 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

tions of their school Hfe. Equally must she have 
some part in their play. In every home — if it is 
to be anything more than a house — there will be a 
"children's hour." Under many circumstances the 
mother will not be particularly welcome as a play- 
mate, but the children's hour will always be looked 
forward to by them with joy; and on most eve- 
nings and all rainy days her participation in their 
games will be hailed with acclamation. Better yet, 
there are a great number of "fads" which child and 
mother can pursue in common. Learning to recog- 
nize birds and trees, making things out of cardboard 
or paper with scissors and paste, drawing, photog- 
raphy, etc. If any mother supposes such intimacy 
is incompatible with respect and due obedience she 
has never tried it. The precise opposite is the case. 
Discipline, in the ordinary sense of the word, is un- 
der such conditions reduced practically to zero. 

It remains to be said that such companionship 
is just as important between father and son (and 
doubtless daughter) as between mother and child. 
While there can not be so much of it, the child 
understands the reason perfectly and values what 
can be given him proportionately. The companion- 
ship of the father is all the more important because 
to-day most children go from the kindergarten 
through the high school guided on their way solely 
by women. As a result, as I have already had oc- 
casion to say, in the end they acquire an intense 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 349 

craving for the society of a man; and for a boy, 
friendship with other boys does not meet this pre- 
cise need. The father who is his son's chum can 
therefore hold him in the hollow of his hand. No 
father may say he has no time for such matters. He 
has his evenings, his Sundays, his vacations, and in 
a very large number of cases nowadays, his Satur- 
day afternoons. H he chooses to spend his time at 
the club or on the golf links that is another matter. 
Let him not for that reason deceive himself as to 
the possibilities of the situation. Let him not say 
that when the day's work is done he must rest. 
After you once take the plunge, life with your chil- 
dren may be fun. In any event let not the father 
throw dust into his own eyes with the reflection that 
the mother's companionship is all that the children 
need. 

Some of the more important results of the rela- 
tionship here described may be briefly stated. (1) 
United with a sense of justice, a fair (not a mirac- 
ulous) amount of tact and some charity for the 
inevitable weaknesses of human nature, especially 
of developing human nature, companionship will 
ordinarily produce a frankness on the part of the 
child which may be his salvation in dangerous sit- 
uations, when he knows not whither to turn if it 
be not to his parents. Just when he most needs 
guidance, therefore, you may be in possession of the 
requisite data; just when the best conceivable op- 



350 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

portunities for discussing the serious problems of 
life arise, you will be able to take advantage of 
them; jusf when he needs a friend, you can serve 
as a friend. (2) Love will spring up between you 
as it never will from any amount of mere heaping 
benefits upon him. At bottom the child wants you 
more than your gifts. If you do not give yourself 
you have withheld from him the one thing precious, 
and more or less clearly he feels it. The spirit of 
comradeship can grow and prosper — in children and 
adults alike — only through the pursuit of common 
ends. The child who feels himself loved and whose 
mother and father are his chums will go through 
much to do right for their sake. It is the testimony 
of teachers, for example, that discipline in the 
school is much easier where children chum with 
their parents. To the superior influence of the ex- 
ample of the loved exemplar I have already referred. 
(3) If you have several children your presence with 
them a part of the time will insure at least a mini- 
mum of proper treatment of one another on their 
part. This amount may quite easily be made to grow 
to a maximum if you handle the matter properly. 
There is no opportunity for moral training compara- 
ble to that of living (not too much of the time) fa- 
miliarly on a plane of felt equality with several chil- 
dren of your own. (4) Finally it makes the task of 
developing healthy tastes and interests in your chil- 
dren an easier one than it otherwise is likely to be. 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 351 

Certain things they will do, and before long enjoy 
doing, because you are with them in the doing. 
Some tastes, at least, you can in this way develop 
in them which will be the most effective of existing 
prophylactics against vice, ill temper, envy and jeal- 
ousy, and many other forms of moral evil. Much 
vice and many other forms of wickedness are at 
bottom due to poverty of resource. The animal 
impulses crawl into the empty mind. 

Discipline. — The subject of discipline occupies 
a great deal of the thought of most conscientious 
parents. If, however, the preceding conditions are 
met, it need play a very small role after the fifth 
year. 

The first statement to be made, and it can be 
made quite dogmatically, is that in the case of the 
very young child we must continuously demand and 
invariably get certain actions regardless of what the 
motives for obedience may be. This piece of work 
should be over by the end of the fifth year at the 
very latest. By that time obedience within the range 
of your eyes and ears should be uniform, a matter 
of course, and automatic; beyond those boundaries 
it should be at least habitual in most of the child's 
fields of action. The value of these results does 
not consist in the production of certain habits which, 
when established, will go on forever of themselves. 
I am not returning to the doctrine criticized in 
Chapter V. The reasons for demanding implicit pbe- 



352 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

dience are two. The first is in order to obtain the 
congeries of effects enumerated in Chapter XL The 
second is to prevent clashes between you and your 
child. I can not believe real comradeship is possi- 
ble where the child is instantly at war with his 
parents the moment a request for service is made 
or a command issued. Where the parent is a chum 
the request will be reasonable, the command just 
• — ^that goes without saying. But the response must 
be something which is a matter of course, or there 
will be ill feeling at the time, and perhaps settled 
enmity in the end. 

As soon as possible — in part from the second year 
— we must show our children the reasons for our 
commands. This does not mean that we need or 
ought to argue the facts with them. What we have 
to do is to lead them to realize that we do not com- 
mand from the mere "will for power," or because 
we are in a temper, or for any other equally un- 
worthy consideration. What I mean is easily il- 
lustrated. I have forbidden my ten-year-old boy 
to go on the lake in a canoe, in response to the in- 
vitation of certain of his friends. In so doing I 
make it perfectly plain that the ground of that pro- 
hibition is the possibility of his drowning; and I 
set forth the dangers as clearly as I am able. But 
I do not argue with him the chances of death. The 
question of fact is mine to decide because, as I point 
out, age has brought me (presumably) superior ex- 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 353 

perience and judgment. I do not set myself up as 
infallible. I merely assert that the chances in a 
given instance are greater that I will know than that 
he will. Let the boy grumble thereupon as much 
as he will because his father is "an old granny," 
he knows at any rate that his father is in that case 
not in spirit unjust. 

As the child passes from year to 3^ear, the sphere 
of liberty and personal responsibility will be en- 
larged gradually. I should suppose that every one 
with sense would know this. But in a conversation 
w^ith one of Germany's greatest educators he said 
that the most serious moral peril in the life of the 
youth of the well-to-do classes in that country lay 
in the abrupt, indeed instantaneous transition to the 
unrestrained liberty of the university from the life 
of the gymnasium, which is not unlike the regime 
of a young ladies' boarding-school in the number 
and character of its restrictions. Here again it 
seems as if in matters of moral education nothing 
could be so obvious that it may not escape the at- 
tention of intelligent people. From which fact I can 
only infer that the subject gets very little of their 
thought. 

Punishment. — ^The world-old problem of pun- 
ishment requires, I suppose, a few words. In Chap- 
ter V (page 48) I called attention to the fact that 
pain may produce moral compunction and thus a 
change in character. If so, no more serious injus- 



354 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

tice could be done a child than to free his life from 
punishment. He runs the risk of never knowing 
what moral evil means to its victim, and this is one 
of the most important lessons in life. Furthermore, 
the right kind of a child and indeed adult often feels 
a real craving for punishment when he knows that he 
has done wrong, a craving which should be satisfied 
in the interest of his moral growth. Mr. Sully illus- 
trates this fact by the following story of a little 
girl nine years old. She *'had been naughty and 
was very sorry for her misbehavior. She was no- 
ticed coming to her lesson limping and said she felt 
very uncomfortable. When asked by her governess 
what was the matter with her she said: Tt was 
very naughty of me to disobey you, so I put my 
right shoe on my left foot and my left shoe on my 
right foot.' "* The craving to make atonement does 
not carry the ordinary child so far as this. But 
it may be there, and lead to a not unwilling accept- 
ance of pain or loss which leaves the character 
stronger and more sensitive. 

With regard to the form of punishment nothing 
can be said beyond the statement that the parent 
must use that variety of the species which careful 
observation shows to work best. This does not mean 
the form which, with a minimum amount of effort 
on his part, produces a maximum of outer con- 
formity on the part of the child. It means what 
is most conducive to moral growth. Children differ 

* Studies of Childhood (1914), p. 289. 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 355 

enormously in this respect. In one child, up to nine 
or ten years old, corporal punishment has the best 
of effects where there has been serious delinquency; 
with another, after fivQ it is a poison. I remem- 
ber two instances of vigorous corporal punishment 
in my own life when I was about eight. They 
were not given in wrath, but, as I knew, in genuine 
sorrow. I was aware of their rationale, though in 
one case (playing with a bonfire), in my superior 
wisdom, I did not accept my father's major premise. 
They did me no harm. On the contrary, they pro- 
duced continued outer conformity in the one case 
— playing with fire — and in the other produced an 
at least temporary realization of the value of con- 
fidence between father and son, and a recognition 
of the misfortune involved in the destruction of that 
relationship through a lie. If, however, in spite 
of the wisdom and good judgment of the parents, 
corporal punishment leaves the child nursing an en- 
during spirit of resentment, then some other means 
must be found of producing the desired change of 
heart. But I insist that some other means must be 
found. 

Moral Instruction. — To make a child realize 
the fact that he is punished because he has done 
wrong is to lead him to discover that wrong-doing 
is one thing and liability to punishment is in its na- 
ture a very different thing. It should become equally 
clear to him in the course of his relationship with 



356 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

wise parents that wrong-doing and displeasing his 
parents do not mean the same thing, for to the good 
parent many forms of action are displeasing only 
because they are first wrong. I have dealt in Chap- 
ter XVI (compare also Chapter XII) with the prob- 
lem how to make a child realize that he has done 
wrong, when in his spontaneous view of his action it 
was entirely innocent, and I must not attempt to 
cover that ground again. For ordinary purposes it 
will be sufficient to treat the essence of morality as 
obedience to the Golden Rule. The meaning and 
reasonableness of this rule are evident to most per- 
sons, young or old. This then will serve as a foun- 
dation. If, thereupon, the parent, whether by inci- 
dental or systematic instruction, will help his child to 
obtain the kind and amount of insight into the issues 
of his conduct which is contemplated in Chapter XII, 
he will obtain results which will compensate him for 
his efforts many times over. In so doing certain 
forces will be set in motion which will act and react 
upon each other in a most beneficent fashion. Par- 
ent and child at the same time will grow into a more 
definite, well-considered, comprehensive ideal of life, 
an ideal of duty and an ideal of success. This will 
supply the child with guidance and strengthen his 
will directly ; it will influence him indirectly by mak- 
ing of the mother or father a wiser, more far-seeing 
exemplar and guide. 



EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 357 

Danger of Our Children's Home Being Infe- 
rior to Our Childhood Home. — It is not neces- 
sary to tell the very modern mother or father who 
alone would think of reading a book about the moral 
education of children that training — apart from dis- 
cipline — in the ordinary significance of the term is 
equally as important as training in moral thought- 
fulness. The old-fashioned home, as we have seen, 
represented in many respects an ideal when looked 
at from this point of view. Here the parents and 
a number of children worked and sometimes played 
together, feeling themselves, in the more favorable 
instances, a unit. Few families, even under the 
most favorable circumstances, can feel themselves 
such to-day. The services performed were not done 
for cash payments, but rather as one's fair share of 
the family burden. Mutual forbearance and kind- 
ness — for which there may have been many occa- 
sions — tended to be secured through the presence 
of the parents as members of the group. The neces- 
sity of thrift was a constant schooling in self-con- 
trol. The enervations of luxury, as of nerve-rack- 
ing, sensational amusements, were largely unknown. 
Such amusements as were available were mainly 
active, not passive, and thus strengthened every fac- 
ulty of the mind, instead of undermining them. 
Life may have been far from perfect in those days. 
But the good life had a training-ground then which 
for the most part is now built over with labor-saving 



358 EDUCATION FOR CHARACTER 

devices and moving-picture "palaces." We must do 
the best we can under the circumstances. We must 
see to it that there is more than one child in our 
family, if not otherwise then by adoption, and that 
these children are near the same age. We should 
make our home, if we possibly can, a center for the 
healthy life of a group of children. We should 
demand that the schools supply facilities for social 
activities where the homes can not. We should de- 
mand some work, if possible some regular work, 
from our children, even if, as inmates of a modern 
flat, we have to exercise some ingenuity in invent- 
ing it. Personal influence ; membership in a healthy- 
minded social group; moral training in its various 
forms; the training of the mind to moral thought- 
fulness — these are the instruments of character 
building at the disposal of the home as of the school. 
If we use them conscientiously and with due reflec- 
tion our children will rise up and call us blessed. 



THE END 



A Program of Moral Instruction 
for the Elementary School 



A PROGRAM OF MORAL 
INSTRUCTION 

GRADE I 
Introductory Lessons 

1. How the school work of the year will help 
the child to do many things he would like to do ( in 
terms of present interests, not of benefits accruing 
in a remote future). 

2. The walk to and from the schoolhouse. Rea- 
sons for not loitering. Helpfulness to others at 
opening and closing of school, and while going to 
and returning from school. 

» 

I. SELF-GOVERNMENT 

Courage. — 3. In accepting discomforts and 
small accidents and impending discomforts; taking 
medicine. 

4. Saying NO either by word or by silent action. 
This is moral courage, but the teacher need not use 
the term. 

Prudence . — 5 . * ' Safety - First Movement ' ' 
rules. Crossing streets and tracks; getting in and 

361 



362 MORAL INSTRUCTION 

out of vehicles; helping younger companions in such 
cases. Playing in the streets. Coasting. 

6. Avoidance of noisome things in streets, yards, 
fields, v^oods; and simple health-hints in the same 
connection. 

Perseverance. — 7. In play and general recre- 
ation, indoors and out. This aspect of perseverance 
enlists the child's interest in preparation for the idea 
of perseverance in work and duty. Illustrations of 
perseverance may be added from the higher forms 
of animal life. 

8. In forms of self-help, tying, buttoning, find- 
ing the way, telling the time, supplying simple needs. 

Self -Control.— 9. Under small pains; under 
treatment of doctor, or nurse. Reminder that adults 
are subject to similar restraints. 

Cleanliness. -— 10. Hands, face, ears, hair, 
teeth, body generally. Cleanliness is itself beauty. 

11. Habits; nasal breathing, deep breathing, ex- 
ercise, carriage. Avoidance of unseemly habits. 

12. In clothing, as regards cleanliness, neatness, 
repair. Cooperation with mother in such personal 
tidiness. The absurdity, on the other hand, of snob- 
bish and finicky habits. 

Order. — 13. Care of toys, books, tools and 
other property. 

14. Punctuality and promptness. Doing to-day 
what ought to be done to-day. 

Obedience. — 15. To rules of indoor and out- 



MORAL INSTRUCTION 363 

door games; household rules; school rules. The 
teacher shotild take great care to show that elders 
obey such rules, and that there is normally a good 
reason for them. 

16. Not touching forbidden things; adults being 
subject to similar laws. But this prohibition does 
not hold when emergency arises, e, g., placing ob- 
jects out of baby's reach. 

II. KINDNESS 

The Family.' — 17. Work and love of parents. 
Love may be real though parents appear harsh, or 
cold, or indifferent. 

18. How can I show my love for my parents? 
(A preparation for the more detailed treatment in 
Grade II.) 

Friends. — 19. Sharing pleasures. Lending 
toys occasionally. 

20. Giving and receiving simple gifts at gift sea- 
sons, or otherwise; thanks; cherishing the thing 
given in good will. 

Cooperation. — 2\. Cooperation In play. Many 
of the best games are group games, and can be 
played enjoyably only as all cooperate in the spirit 
of fairness, unselfishness and good temper. 

22. Cooperation in school work. How the pu- 
pils can help each other with their work, so that 
each shall get the most out of it. 



364 MORAL INSTRUCTION 

23. Cooperation in the care of the school prop- 
erty, as the property of the community, which in- 
ckides the child's parents, his brothers and sisters, 
his classmates, himself. The terms "commmiity" 
and "cooperation" need not be used. 

Manners. — 24. Greeting friends and acquaint- 
ances, and callers with whom the parents wish the 
child to be friendly. On the other hand, non-inter- 
ruption of conversation, music, etc. Some tradi- 
tional fairy tales and folklore help in portraying the 
charm of simple courtesy. 

25. At meals. 

26. Good manners have their source in kindness. 
Animals.— -27. Household pets, their habits 

and needs. Respect for neighbors' pets. 

28. Natural history stories, especially of domes- 
tic animals. Point out that animals have similar 
feelings to our own. 

III. TRUSTWORTHINESS 

29. openness of look and demeanor; frank move- 
ments as opposed to furtive; readiness to show 
things broken or injured by self, including things 
which have been borrowed from others. These qual- 
ities should be emphasized before stressing the value 
of verbal truthfulness. 

30. Honesty as regards ''mine" and "thine." 
Restoring things found. Returning things bor- 
rowed. 



MORAL INSTRUCTION 365 

IV. FAIRNESS 

31. In giving each companion a due share in 
amusements, privileges, luxuries. Taking turns in 
being leader. Contrast with the spirit of monopoly 
and cornering of toys, fruit, candy, etc. Even at 
this early stage of the course generosity may be 
linked with fairness. 

V. SOCIAL OUTLOOK 

32. Stories of child life in the United States. 

33. The same topic continued. Due place should 
be given to stories of girls. 

34. Stories of child life in foreign countries. 

35. The same topic continued. 

36. Helps to reading, including talks on picture 
books. The aim of such talk in this and the follow- 
ing grades should be to link up to the school and 
the public library, and to create interest by lively 
extracts and descriptions. 

GRADE II 

I. SELF-GOVERNMENT 

Courage. — 1. In accepting discomforts, pain, 
and small accidents, and impending discomforts. 
(Same topic as in Grade I, with enlarged illustra- 
tion.) 



366 MORAL INSTRUCTION 

2. In facing insects, reptiles, dogs, cows. Dis- 
tinguish between harmful and harmless animals. 

3. Saying NO, either by word or by silent action. 
This topic, repeated from Grade I, should receive 
enlarged illustration. 

Prudence. - — 4. Temperance in eating and 
drinking. This subject is here set in its proper place 
as part of general character building. But probably 
it will recur in other connections, e. g.j in reading 
health primers. 

5. The general idea of prudence — noting ap- 
proach of bad weather ; sowing seeds in forethought. 
The life of the higher animals supplies some illus- 
trations. 

Perseverance. — 6. In reaching a given end, 
e. g.j in walking, climbing; with caution against 
overtaxing strength. 

7. In spite of physical difficulties. Stories of 
pioneers who persevered and succeeded in spite of 
hardships and delays. 

Self-Control.— 8. Good humor under difficul- 
ties. Good humor a token of energy and self-con- 
fidence. (These terms need not be used.) 

9. Waiting without peevish impatience. Avoid- 
ance of impatient noises. 

Cleanliness. — 10. Cooperation with others in 
sweeping, washing, cleaning, securing fresh air, i. e., 
simple forms of collective sanitation. 



MORAL INSTRUCTION 367 

11. Simple talk on how diseases may be spread 
by carelessness. 

Order. — 12. Necessary for comfort and effi- 
ciency in kitchen, garden, railroad, store, etc. 

13. In the class room. 

II. KINDNESS 

The Family.-— 14. How can I show my love 
for my parents ? Four answers: (a) By respectful 
and courteous manners. 

15. (b) By household help (which can be ren- 
dered by both girls and boys). This is demanded 
by fairness as well as love. 

16. (c) By cheerful and willing performance of 
my share of the daily household duties. 

17. (d) By little helps to sick sisters or broth- 
ers; to younger or elder sisters or brothers; and to 
other members of the family. 

Friends. — -18. How to treat friends in one's 
yard or house, or when receiving or paying visits. 
Friendliness toward boys and girls who have re- 
cently entered the school or the neighborhood. 

Cooperation. — 19. Care and protection of 
school property. Topic continued from Grade I, 
with larger illustration. 

20. Protection of public flowers, trees, grass, 
paths, fountains. Children may be little police. 



368 MORAL INSTRUCTION 

Manners.— 21. At parties, entertainments, ex- 
cursions ; in crowds. 

22. Good temper in playing, choosing, continu- 
ing and ending games, indoor and outdoor. 

23. Questions, answers, modes of address. 
Animals.— 24. As "workers without hands." 

25. As our aids. Birds which serve man. 

III. TRUSTWORTHINESS 

26. Truthful statements as to mistakes and mis- 
haps. 

27. Avoidance of exaggeration generally. 

28. Care in making and keeping promises. 
George Washington's maxim : "Undertake not what 
you can not perform, but be careful to keep your 
promise." 

IV. FAIRNESS 

29. In acknowledging merits of schoolmates in 
work or play. Refraining from sneers or deprecia- 
tion. Laughing at others. 

30. Spirit of "live and let live," as against envy 
and jealousy. Fair play in games. Allowing play- 
mates to have their way a fair share of the time. 

31. Honesty in exchanging things with other 
children, especially if they are ignorant. 



MORAL INSTRUCTION 369 

V. SOCIAL OUTLOOK 

32. Stories of child life in Colonial America, 
with special stress on the advantages and disadvan- 
tages as compared with the life of to-day. 

33. The same topic, continued. 

34. Stories of child life in foreign lands. 

35. The same topic, continued. 
26. Talk about books. 

GRADE III 

I. SELF-GOVERNMENT 

Courage. — 1. Encountering risks in work and 
duty, i, e., risks known beforehand, e. g.j the fish- 
erman's life; the miner's. 

2. In setting a good example. 

Prudence. ■— 3. Temperance in eating and 
drinking. 

4. Wholesome, plain diet, as against luxuries. 
The candy habit. Eating at recess. 

5. Going to bed early. The necessity of obtain- 
ing sufficient sleep. 

Perseverance. — 6. In self-appointed tasks, 
e. g., learning music, dramatic parts, reciting, draw- 
ing, skating and swimming. 



370 MORAL INSTRUCTION 

7. Perseverance is necessary for the attainment 
of almost everything that has value; "nothing for 
nothing" is the law of life. The satisfaction of 
overcoming obstacles; this is the chief source of 
pleasure in games. 

Self-Control.— 8. Under taunts and provoca- 
tions. Avoidance of rash retorts. 

9. Quarrels and fights. Discussion of this topic 
between teacher and class. 

Cleanliness. — 10. Cleanliness in food and 
drink. Importance to health, public and private, of 
care as regards water, milk, diet. 

Discipline.—- 11. The school as a center of du- 
ties, punctuality, regularity, order, mutual respon- 
sibilities of pupils, and of pupils and teachers. 
General law governing board of education, super- 
intendent, teachers, children. Obligation, therefore, 
is a universal requirement, not a mere whim of 
teachers. 

II. KINDNESS 

The Family. — ^12. Why we ought to follow 
the judgment of our parents. This topic is not 
obedience as such, but trust in parents who know 
better than the child what is good for him. 

13. Saving money and anxiety of parents by 
care of clothes, etc. Saving annoyance by punctual- 
ity at meals. 

14. Helping to bear the household cares by little 



MORAL INSTRUCTION 371 

earnings. The teacher should avoid the suggestion 
of any labor that can not be rendered without in- 
jury to the child.* 

15. Home duties performed cheerfully, at the set 
time, without eye-service, without reminder from 
parents. Home duties before games, visits to amuse- 
ments, etc. This conflict of motives should not be 
overdrawn, as if duty were necessarily disagreeable. 
There may be a glow of triumph in duty done. 

Friends.— 16. Gratitude to friends. 

17. What can I do for my schoolmates and other 
friends ? 

Cooperation.— 18. Both a duty and an advan- 
tage. Essential to part singing, musical drill, fire- 
drill, life-saving exercises, dramatic and other enter- 
tainments. 

Manners.— 19. In school; to visitors; to fel- 
low pupils; in refraining from laughter at mistakes. 
This thought fulness carries one beyond micre obedi- 
ence to school law. 

20. Obliging and assisting; offering seats, help- 
ing to find lost articles, helping people who need 
help in finding their way, helping the embarrassed. 

21. Courtesy in carrying messages, and perform- 
ing other commissions and services. 

Animals.— 22. Natural history of quadrupeds, 

stressing examples of mutual aid. Such talks are, 

* At any period of the school life, the teacher may privately 
talk to children who have to meet the problem of neglectful 
parents. Consult Foerster's Art of Living, pp. 149-152. 



Z12 MORAL INSTRUCTION 

of course, reinforced by nature-study lessons and 
reading. (Consult Kropotkin, Mutual Aid, a Fac- 
tor of Evolution, Ch, 11. The same in Nineteenth 
Century, 28 :699. Or see Darwin, Descent of Man, 
Ch. IV, under Sociability. ) 

23. Care of pets generally. 

III. TRUSTWORTHINESS 

24. Modesty, contrasted with vanity. Boasting. 

25. Accuracy and thoroughness as a basis of 
trustworthiness. 

26. Continuance of tasks as a responsibility with- 
out further direction, i. e., duty carried on without 
eye-service. 

27. Telling the truth even at a cost. 

28. Money and its purpose. Correct handling, 
correct change; not taking advantage of the mis- 
takes of ignorance. 

29. Rendering true account of money to parents, 
friends and others. The honest balance-sheet may 
be illustrated even in the simple affairs of school 
children. 

IV. FAIRNESS 

30. Giving chances to cripples and other handi- 
capped children in play, amusements, excursions. 
Not taking advantage of the ignorance of fellow 
players. 



MORAL INSTRUCTION 373 

31. Generosity of spirit, i. e., magnanimity as a 
higher form of fairness. (The term ''magnanimity" 
need not be used.) Disdain for paltriness and stin- 
giness, as distinct from a reasonable economy. 

V. SOCIAL OUTLOOK 

32. Public help for the unfortunate, e. g., or- 
phans, street waifs. Help given by voluntary or- 
ganizations. Individual help as a cooperating fac- 
tor. 

33. Public help for the blind, deaf and dumb, 
crippled. Help given by voluntary organizations. 
Individual help as a cooperating factor. 

34. What children can do for the charitable 
movements of their city, state, nation and the world; 
especially for children. 

35. Stories of child life. 

36. Talk about books. 

GRADE IV 

I. SELF-GOVERNMENT 

Courage. — 1. In spite of foolish or constitu- 
tional fears. Self -encouragement. Children should 
learn that brave actions have often been done not- 
withstanding certain fears, and that it is this which 
makes the actions really brave, 



374 MORAL INSTRUCTION 

2. To protect the weak, and resist wrong, on 
playground, street and elsewhere. 

Prudence. — 3. Safety rules in connection with 
fire. Bonfires. 

4. Safety rules: water, ice; poisons; hot water, 
boiling fruit kettles. 

5. Other people suffer through our carelessness. 
Hence motive to prudence. 

Perseverance. — 6. In leisure pursuits, e. g., 
toy-making, model-making, etc. Stories of young 
mechanics and inventors, e. g., Sir Isaac Newton, 
Edison. 

7. Simple conception of perseverance as a nec- 
essary factor in the world's work, e. g., in building 
United States railroads in spite of many difficulties. 
The message to Garcia. 

Self-Control. — 8. Steady speech, as con- 
trasted with loquacity. (Consult Foerster's Art of 
Living J pp. 17-23.) 

Order.— 9. In collection of stamps, scraps, 
picture post-cards, natural history specimens. Chil- 
dren might bring to the class specimens of their or- 
derly collections. 

10. Simple talk, illustrated from nature study, 
showing how we learn about plants, etc., more eas- 
ily by arranging them in classes. 

Discipline. — 11. Illustrations of ship's disci- 
pline as a picturesque type of social discipline in 
general. 



MORAL INSTRUCTION 375 

II. KINDNESS 

The Family. — 12. Duty to parents to do 
school work well. 

13. How can I help make the household comfort- 
able, apart from doing recognized tasks? Exercise 
of forethought and invention in this direction. 

14. What brothers and sisters can do for one 
another. 

15. Respect for servants, whether the regular 
household servants or temporary servants, e. g., in 
cars, restaurants, stores, etc. 

Friends,-— 16. Thoughtfulness for the com- 
fort, tastes, etc., of friends. Sympathetic and help- 
ful interest in their troubles. (Consult Foerster's 
Art of Living, pp. 4-10; 176-9.) 

17. Schoolmates whom one can help, e. g., the 
friendless, the shy, etc. (Consult Foerster's Art of 
Living, pp. 79, 80; 133; 176-9.) 

18. Grateful commemoration of those who have 
worked to amuse children, e. g., Hans Andersen, 
Dickens, Miss Alcott. 

Consideration.-— 19. Toward sub-normal and 
other infirm persons, the blind, the deaf and dumb. 
Special tact must be exercised in treating of con- 
sideration toward stammerers, etc., if afflicted pu- 
pils are present. 

20. Stories of persons who, in spite of natural 
affliction, have achieved success, e. g., Helen Keller. 



Z76 MORAL INSTRUCTION 

Such stories may encourage certain types of children 
and produce respect for the afflicted. 

Manners.— "21. Toward the aged. 

Cooperation. — 22. Children's cooperation in 
civic crusades (a cleaner and more attractive city; 
anti-fly crusade, if topic is treated near end of 
school year). 

Animals.— 23. Natural history of birds. Il- 
lustrations selected in order to emphasize mutual 
aid. (Consult Kropotkin, Mutvial Aid, A Factor of 
Evolution, Ch. I. The same in Nineteenth Century, 
28:337.) 

III. TRUSTWORTHINESS 

24. Contempt for evasion or concealment, 
whether in speech or demeanor. In this attitude is 
involved magnanimity also. 

25. Duty done without oversight of elders ; topic 
continued from Grade III, with illustrations on a 
higher level. How different from the spirit that 
needs police, prison and punishment. 

26. Disdain for cheating and underhand dealing 
in regard to money and property generally. Thus 
is formed the public opinion which may be more de- 
terrent than the law. 

27. The sense of honor gradually connects with 
that of honesty, and this should be treated as highly 
important. 



MORAL INSTRUCTION 377 

IV. FAIRNESS 

28. Compensating others for our mistakes, and 
for injuries unintentional or otherwise. 

29. The unfairness of accepting favors or kind- 
nesses from others and not returning them when we 
are able to. Sponging. 

V. SOCIAL OUTLOOK 

30. Public protection of the publi^ health. (Con- 
sult Dunn's The Community and the Citizen^ Ch. 
IX.) 

31. Public protection of life and property. (Con- 
sult Dunn's The Community and the Citizen, Ch. 
X.) 

32. The public schools. How they were estab- 
lished and why they are maintained. 

33. Story-descriptions of public officers of vil- 
lage or city, e. g., the mayor. 

34. Stories of benefactors of village or city in 
which the pupils reside. 

Z^. The same topic continued. Other service 
besides that of money donations should be remem- 
bered. 

Z6. Talk about books. 



378 MORAL INSTRUCTION 

GRADE V 

I. SELF-GOVERNMENT 

Courage. — -1. Self-reliance; self-confidence. 

2. The same subject continued. 

3. Cheerfulness, good humor and hopefulness as 
aspects of courage. 

4. Encouraging others, especially by example. 
This is not only kindness ; it proves the fine stuff one 
is made of. We can give out power. 

Prudence. — 5. Avoidance of heat, chills, 
damp, with reasons. Cooperation with parents in 
such care, thus saving them anxiety. 

6. Avoidance of rashness and bravado. 

Perseverance. -— 7. In searching for facts 
wanted ; solving puzzles. Stories of great searchers 
in history, e. g., Columbus. 

Self-Respect. — 8. Self-respect, e. g., as motive 
to cleanliness and neatness; thus lifting the motive 
to order above mere obedience to rules of home or 
school. 

Self-Activity. — 9. Work a natural form of en- 
ergy. Compare the work and play of animals {I. e., 
they are both natural energies)." 

10. The same topic continued. Joy in work, 
contrasted with dull idleness, and ill-health bred by 
laziness. 

11. Necessary to the pleasant and useful arts, 



MORAL INSTRUCTION 379 

e. g.j skating, swimming, dancing, sewing, and the 
handling of tools. 

12. Habit as a help in school routine and study. 
(On habit, consult William James, Habit [Holt, N. 
Y. ; being a reprint of Ch. IV of the Principles of 
Psychology] ; the same, Talks to Teachers on Psy- 
chology , Ch. VIII ; MacCunn, The Making of Char- 
acter, Part I, Ch. VI ; Foerster, The Art of Living j 
pp. 48-51; 54-56; 59-67.) 

II. KINDNESS 

The Family. — 13. Family reunions, festivals, 
and birthdays. 

Friends.-— 14. Remembrance of the absent. 
Defense of friend's good name. George Washing- 
ton's motto : — "Speak not evil of the absent." 

Consideration. — 15. For younger children; 
for the less strong, clever, etc. Protecting them 
against tyranny, imposition, dishonesty, etc., on the 
part of others. 

Cooperation. — 16. The family as a cooperat- 
ing membership, interdependent and mutually help- 
ful. The idea of a society is here simply sketched. 

17. The school, treated on the same lines. 

18. Tale-bearing, considered in relation to the 
principle that pupils should cooperate for the school's 
good. As the subject presents difficulties, the better 
plan m^ay be to discuss it frankly, and let the children 
speak their minds. 



380 MORAL INSTRUCTION 

Manners. — 19. In directing strangers; will- 
ingness to assist, providing always that the child 
sees the case is clear and genuine. 

20. Similar courtesy to foreigners ; consideration 
for foreign fellow pupils. 

21. Good manners and courtesy toward those 
who are different from ourselves. Among these 
will be included those who, because of disease or 
accident, are peculiar in appearance. 

Animals.-— 22. Information concerning the 
Humane Society, the Audubon Society and kindred 
organizations. 

III. TRUSTWORTHINESS 

23. Fulfilment of trust. Pleasure in satisfying 
such confidence. 

24. Reasonable trust in others, as distinguished 
from imprudent credulity on the one hand and timid 
distrust on the other. 

25. People do actually live largely by trust ; trust 
in parents, teachers, friends, merchants, captains, 
statesmen. The teacher should stress this point, 
while continuing to maintain a common-sense cau- 
tion against silly over-trust. 

26. Honesty as to property left in public con- 
veyances, places, etc. Restoration to owners. Dis- 
cuss question of accepting rewards. 



MORAL INSTRUCTION 381 

IV. FAIRNESS 

27. Revenge and forgiveness. 

28. Gratitude as an aspect of fairness. 

29. Elementary ideas of fairness expanding into 
the idea of justice. Justice impartial. The symbol 
of justice with sword and scales. 

30. Recognition of rights of others to seats, 
precedence, turns, shares, etc., as between brothers 
and sisters, playmates, friends, etc. The point of 
view now is not the good-natured sharing consid- 
ered in earlier grades, but a reasoned regard. 

31. Nobility of justice when shown by the 
stronger toward the weaker. 

V. SOCIAL OUTLOOK 

32. Life stories of national servants of the state 
— presidents and other federal officers. The idea of 
social service should be kept uppermost, the object 
being to provide interesting personal elements on 
which, in later grades, to build up conceptions of 
civic administration. 

33. Life stories of national benefactors, showing 
the good citizen in other aspects than that of voter 
or official. 

34. The same topic continued. 

35. The work of the Children's Aid Society, the 
Fresh Air Fund, etc. 

36. Talk about books. 



382 MORAL INSTRUCTION 

GRADE VI 

I. SELF-GOVERNMENT 

Courage. — 1. Presence of mind amid danger 
or panic (always in relation to the child's capacity) ; 
and in the smaller emergencies of daily life. 

2. Same subject continued. Idea of coolness; 
Illustrations should on no account be confined to 
boy life. The subject concerns girls also. 

3. Physical courage excellent, but, as in the case 
of brave robbers, cruel conquerors, etc., it is seen 
to need a finer aim. Show how moral courage faces 
ridicule, difficulty, opposition, for a right object. 
The term "moral courage" is not necessarily em- 
ployed. 

4. Value of knowledge to allay fear, e. g., 
knowledge of swimming allays fear of water. Su- 
perstition based on ignorance, as the former fear of 
comets and eclipses. 

Prudence. — 5. Thrift, involving present self- 
denial for future value and for greater service. 

6. Temperance in play and amusement. 

Perseverance. — 7. Distinguish by examples 
between perseverance and stubbornness. Persever- 
ance is sensible; stubbornness foolish, and often ab- 
surd. The latter point may be stressed. 

Self-Activity. — 8. Useful activity, as distin- 
guished from fussiness and aimless energy. 



MORAL INSTRUCTION 383 

9. True work is useful to self, and of service to 
others. 

Habit. — 10. As the basis of self-conquest. 
The joy of gaining little victories for the good 
habit, with corresponding weakening of the bad. 

11. The same topic continued. 

II. KINDNESS 

The Family. — 12. Respect for family name. 
Desire to help family's progress. Nevertheless, 
avoid family boastfulness. 

13. Respect for parents, whose imperfections are 
nevertheless obvious to their children. (Consult 
Foerster's remarks, already referred to; and bear 
in mind that the subject should be dealt with in 
story form, avoiding reference to local personali- 
ties.) 

Friends. — 14. The influence of good and bad 
companions. The responsibility of each for his in- 
fluence upon his companions. 

15. Loyalty to friends, as illustrated in famous 
friendships. 

Manners. — 16. Between girls and boys, at 
home, school, in public places. 

17. The "lady" and the "gentleman." Chivalry 
in the older sense (see Grade VII). 

Animals.— 18. Simple biological talk, linked 
with nature study. 



384 MORAL INSTRUCTION 

19. The same subject continued. 

20. Notice of magazines and books relating to 
the hfe and the humane treatment of animals, e. g., 
Bird Lore. 

III. TRUSTWORTHINESS 

21. Care in observation and reporting; wilHng- 
ness to note and acknowledge one's mistake. 

22. Apology and self -correction. The fact that 
this topic is placed under the head of Trustworthi- 
ness indicates its real nature. Apology may be the 
reverse of weakness. 

2o. Honest wares; honesty in the supply of nat- 
ural products, goods, etc. Incidental reference to 
adulteration, false weights and measures. 

24. The harm done in a school by the dishonesty 
of a few pupils, through consequent loss of confi- 
dence in all the pupils. Trace out the effects of 
this loss of confidence. On the other hand, the con- 
sequences of mutual confidence, and how it may be 
maintained. Apply to the larger community„ 

IV. JUSTICE (fairness) 

25. The injustice of repeating or believing idle 
or mischievous tales without testing them. 

26. To wrong-doers, unjust people, (Jisagreeable 
people. 



MORAL INSTRUCTION 385 

27. The recognition of human worth, wherever 
found, as a demand of justice. Snobbishness is su- 
perficiaHty and injustice. 

V. SOCIAL OUTLOOK 

28. Simple sketch of the interdependence of 
workers in the same trade, or of different trades 
and occupations. 

29. Interdependence of countries. 

30. Descriptive sketches (avoiding statistical and 
administrative details) of institutions of help and 
amenity, e. g., fire-brigades; life-boats, light-houses; 
wireless telegraphy at sea; Red Cross ambulance; 
famine funds; use of troops and warships for res- 
cue and aid. Parks, playgrounds, etc. The teacher 
will select from this list, remembering that the ob- 
ject is to provide interesting material on which civic 
conceptions can be built later. 

31. The same topic continued. 

32. The same topic continued. 

33. Simple sketch of the school system, kinder- 
garten, elementary school, high school and univer- 
sity. 

34. The pupil's service as return for the benefit 
bestowe-d by the community. 

35. Simple lesson on the government of the vil~ 
lage, city or district in which the pupils reside. 

36. Talk about books. 



386 MORAL INSTRUCTION 

GRADE VII 

I. SELF-GOVERNMENT 

Courage. — 1. Industrial and social heroism, 
i. e,, courage shown in facing the risks of industry 
and life-saving. Besides satisfying admiration for 
courage, this theme prepares the way for the ideal 
of international peace. Such lessons appeal equally 
to girls and boys. 

2. The same topic continued. 

3. The same topic continued. Include the moral 
courage displayed by the refusal to engage in dis- 
honest business dealing. 

4. Opportunities to show courage in the every- 
day life of the home and the school. For example, 
checking dishonesty or other bad practises among 
schoolmates or playmates. Independence in doing 
right regardless of the opinion of one's mates. 

Prudence. — 5. Habits of temperance fit one 
for the service of others as well as profiting the in- 
dividual. 

6. The same topic continued. 

7. Physical vigor an important factor in the con- 
quest of temptations to idleness, bad temper, cow- 
ardice, lack of fortitude, and selfishness. Physical 
weakness has a tendency to make these impulses 
stronger and, at the same time, the will less effective 
in struggling with them. 



MORAL INSTRUCTION 387 

8. The same topic continued. On lack of sleep 
as a cause of irritability, consult Foerster's Art of 
Living^ pp. 23-27. 

Perseverance. — 9. Illustrated from the his- 
tory of the industrial arts. 

10. Pursuit of knowledge under difficulties. 

Efficiency. — 11. Habit and efficiency. Stories 
showing how the worker and social servant is effi- 
cient by virtue of habit. 

12. Talent; its consecration to service and duty. 

13. Growth. Stories of girls and boys who un- 
folded into noble adulthood. 

14. Looking forward. The good ambition that 
looks toward a vocation and is willing to train for it. 

15. Duty of all members of the commonwealth 
to work and serve according to ability. 

II. KINDNESS 

The Family. — 16. Family life on the frontier, 
and in colonial days. (Consult Dunn's The Com- 
munity and the Citij^en^ Ch. V.) 

17. Family life in other countries. 

18. What the family does for its members; as 
persons, as workers, as members of society. 

Friends. — 19. The qualities which make a 
good and valuable friend. 

Manners.- — 20. Chivalry in general. Inclusion 
of other illustrations than those of courtesy be- 
tween the sexes ; e. g., chivalry toward a rival. 



388 MORAL INSTRUCTION 

Kindness and Intellect. — 21. Show how clev- 
erness may be devoted to kind service. This point 
is worth emphasizing, for the finer sorts of kindness 
often imply talent and genius. (Consult Foerster, 
op. cit., passim). 

Animals. — 22. Kinship between man and ani- 
mals, physical and mental. 

23. The same topic continued. 

III. TRUSTWORTHINESS 

24. Being and seeming. Genuineness contrasted 
with hypocrisy. 

25. Honorable pride in doing more than a con- 
tract requires, sooner than allow work to appear 
inferior. 

26. Intelligent service wanted; not mere blind 
loyalty; just as we admire clever kindness in Les- 
son 2L 

IV. JUSTICE 

27. Fair play in sport and athletic contests. The 
rules of sportsmanship. 

28. Justice in its social aspects. Justice causes 
contentment in family, school or state; injustice 
causes discontent. 

29. Mercy, closely connected with justice; i. e., 
mercy toward offenders. (Not to be confused with 
mercy in the sense of general tenderness.) 



MORAL INSTRUCTION 389 

30. Gratitude toward persons who have helped 
the common weal. Such servants have too often 
been neglected. 

V. SOCIAL OUTLOOK 

31. Society, what it means. The interdependence 
of different classes. We here learn how each mem- 
ber of society contributes to its maintenance — men's 
service, women's service, children's service, the 
thinker's service, the day laborer's service, that of 
the capitalist (who risks his money), the manager 
(who directs the work), etc. 

32. The same topic continued. Mutual aid, e. g., 
in times of calamity. Note how varieties of people 
may give varieties of aid. 

33. The same topic continued. Common joys, 
festivals, sorrows, difficulties, affecting a whole vil- 
lage, city or nation, and perhaps humanity. 

These lessons sketch, in a concrete way, the or- 
ganic nature of society, i. e., society as a living ex- 
istence, bound together by general feelings, ideas, 
purposes. But such terms as "organic nature," etc., 
are used for the guidance of the teacher only, and 
will not be employed in lessons. 

34. Obedience to law, illustrated by life stories 
and biographical incidents. 

35. Obedience to law, illustrated from every-day 
life in the United States. 

36. Talk about books. 



390 MORAL INSTRUCTION 

GRADE VIII 

I. SELF-GOVERNMENT 

Courage. — 1. In self-sacrifice. In previous 
lessons we have taken care to praise homely and 
every-day courage, but the present stage is eminently 
one for exciting admiration for heroic types. 

2. Civic self-sacrifice, i. e., self-sacrifice for the 
public good. This is the highest type of moral 
courage, and it often involves physical courage. 

Prudence.— -3. Care in the choice of a voca- 
tion. What to take into consideration in such a 
choice. The honorable ambition to succeed. 

Perseverance.— 4. In good causes "for con- 
science' sake." Mere courage often falls away. 
There is a further splendor in the courage to hold 
fast and put through one's purpose. 

The Self. — -5. The self as something to be un- 
folded. How may a boy or girl develop his or her 
power to think accurately, to feel richly and gen- 
erously, and to will vigorously? 

6. Self-knowledge. What am I worth? What 
can I do? What hinders me? Self-knowledge en- 
ables us to hold the balance between undue diffidence 
with regard to our powers, and self-conceit. 

7. The self, subject to influences; moved by in- 
terests; needing to think of consequences. 



MORAL INSTRUCTION 391 

8. The self as an instrument of service. The 
idea of service does not imply servility, but rather 
strength of intellect and character. It may be ex- 
pressed, for instance, in vigorous encouragement 
and leadership of others. 

9. Self-respect and self-forgetfulness are the 
foundation stones of character. 

The teacher will bear in mind that such topics 
are to be illustrated from biography, nor treated 
abstractly. 

II. KINDNESS 

The Family. — 10. What the family does for 
the community. (Consult Dunn's The Community 
and the Citizen^ Ch. V.) 

Friends. — 11. The qualities of a friend — un- 
selfishness, good temper, sincerity, readiness to over- 
look small faults. "The only way to have a friend 
is to be one." (Emerson.) 

Consideration. — 12. For the poor. Practical 
efforts in connection with the school. 

13. Poverty as an evil which good citizens will 
cooperate to remedy. Education and talent and 
character are good because they give us power to 
serve in this effort. 

Manners. — 14. Courtesy in business and in- 
dustrial life. Employers and employed; traders and 
customers; the woman behind the counter; etc. 



392 MORAL INSTRUCTION 

15. To people of different political and religious 
views. 

Animals. — 16. The social feelings among the 
higher animals. 

III. TRUSTWORTHINESS 

17. Devotion to truth, illustrated in the lives of 
scientific workers. 

18. The honor which disdains bribes and secret 
commissions. 

19. The honor which despises profiting at a 
neighbor's expense, by gambling and betting. The 
teacher should put the stress on this motive, and 
not merely condemn reliance on chance. 

20. Honesty in business transactions in the life 
of the pupil, and in that of the man and woman. 
Our honesty makes people have confidence in us, 
and increases their confidence in each other. 

IV. JUSTICE 

21. Just judgment of people who may at first 
sight appear indifferent, rude, foolish, etc., and may 
really have better motives. 

22. Justice in judging others generally. 

23. Industrial justice. Rendering a fair equiva- 
lent for the price or wages received. 

24. Simple sketch of the progress of justice from 



MORAL INSTRUCTION 393 

older ideas to modern. One or two comparisons 
will suffice, e. g., as regards capital punishment, 
treatment of debtors, etc. 

V. CIVICS 

The method in this section will not be confined 
to the use of the story, although descriptions based 
upon newspaper or magazine material should be em- 
ployed as far as possible. The list of topics is a 
series of abstract terms and statements which the 
teacher must in every case translate into the con- 
crete. 

. 25. Nature of a society. It is a body of people 
having common memories (history), joys, sorrows, 
hopes ; common home and familiar scenery and mon- 
uments; common manners and customs; a common 
desire for justice, law, defense and general v\^elfare. 

26. Meaning of the state. It is a society bound 
together by the possession of a common govern- 
ment. What would happen if our government were 
abolished and not replaced by any other? 

27. The essence of government is cooperation, 
with compulsion for those who refuse to do their 
share. Illustrate by showing how men once pro- 
tected themselves against theft on the Western 
frontier, and how they do it in a city, to-day; by 
showing how formerly people attempted to protect 
themselves individually against contagious disease, 



394 MORAL INSTRUCTION 

and the modern method of city or state laws of 
quarantine, the inspection of foods, milk, etc. 

28. The public will is expressed in law. The 
duty to obey the law is the duty of service, or of 
placing the good of the whole above that of the 
individual in case of conflict. On the other hand, 
note that the individual himself is a member of the 
whole, and his good is therefore contained in the 
welfare of the whole. 

29. This last statement shown in detail by an 
account of the organic nature of society, or the in- 
terdependence of human interests. As illustrations 
among others, show how corrupt government in one 
state may affect harmfully the citizens of another 
state, and how important it is to the citizens e. g., 
of Wisconsin whether New York and California 
choose able and patriotic congressmen. 

30. What the state (which, as always, is here 
used to include the city) does for the individual. In 
part a review of preceding topics under Social Out- 
look, upon a higher plane. What it might do every- 
where if it were conducted with more ability, hon- 
esty and patriotism; illustrated by the best things 
being done in certain American cities or common- 
wealths. 

31. The same subject continued. 

32. How the local community is governed. 

33. How the United States is governed. 

34. What qualities the state needs in its citizens. 



MORAL INSTRUCTION 395 

and why? Physical vigor, ability, knowledge of 
public problems and affairs, courage, perseverance, 
honesty, the love of justice, and patriotism. Illus- 
trate by contemporary events in the United States. 
(In this topic all the preceding work of the course 
is focused upon the subject of the relation of the 
citizen to the state.) 

35. Reasons for loving and desiring to serve our 
country (and city) apart from considerations de- 
rived from what it does for us and those in whom 
we are interested, as described in the answers of 
30 and 31 above, (a) Gratitude to and emulation 
of past national and local benefactors 

36. (b) Gratitude and emulation of contempo- 
rary benefactors. Here, as always in the case of 
gratitude, considerations of fairness enter also. Cf. 
the story of the Siberian travelers in Gould's Con- 
duct Stories, page 135. 

37. (c) The greatness of the results. A realiza- 
tion of the leading part which the United States is 
taking and will take in shaping the history of the 
world normally awakens a strong sense of individ- 
ual responsibility. 

38. (d) One's efforts will count. National 
progress is a fact, though much remains to be 
done. 

39. The duties of citizenship; loyalty. This in- 
cludes obedience to law, including those laws which 
the citizen does not approve. It includes also help- 



396 MORAL INSTRUCTION 

ing to enforce the law. Bribe giving and bribe tak- 
ing as treason. 

40. Duties of citizenship. The payment of taxes. 
The purpose of taxation. Tax dodging as an unfair 
shifting of burdens upon other shoulders, which will 
always include those weaker than our own. 

41. Duties of citizenship. An intelligent and 
active interest in public affairs. Attendance upon 
primaries and voting. The duty to hold office. The 
responsibility of the individual citizen for good gov- 
ernment. 

42. The duties of the citizen to the society in 
which he lives. Every time we do a genuine piece 
of work or are otherwise honest in business or other 
relations of life, we do just so much to make our 
community better. Show how. 

43. Duties of the citizen to the society in which 
he lives. The duty of joining with fellow citizens in 
the work of promoting education, the advance of 
knowledge and art, the upbuilding of character, and 
the spirit of human brotherhood in all spheres of 
Hfe. 

The teacher will observe that topics 39-41 deal 
with citizenship in the narrower sense of the rela- 
tion of the individual to government; 42 and 43 
with citizenship in the sense of membership in soci- 
ety apart from government. 

44. National defense. War. International arbi- 
tration and peace. 



MORAL INSTRUCTION 397. 

45. The same subject continued. 

46. Humanity, its meaning. Duties of the more 
civilized to the less civilized. 

47. Humanity a brotherhood. 

48. The progress of the race a fact. A source 
of hope and enthusiasm. (Abundant material and 
valuable points of view in Tylor's Anthropology, 
beginning with Chapter VII.) 



Exercises 



EXERCISES 

CHAPTER I 

THE PLACE OF MORAL EDUCATION IN THE SCHOOL 

1. Is society growing more or less dependent for its wel- 
fare upon the conduct of its members? State your reasons in 
detail, and give illustrations. 

2. Is there any substitute that can do the work of character, 
or is it rather true that the fruits of character can be had only 
from character? For example, can political or educational 
machinery be devised with such skill that it will make prac- 
tically no difference in results whether the citizens or teachers 
are men and women of character or not ? Discuss. 

3. To what extent are the temptations to wrong-doing 
growing (a) greater in number and strength, or (b) less, in 
American life to-day? 

4. What forces which have made for the upbuilding of 
character in the past are tending to disappear in contempo- 
rary society? 

5. To what extent and in what ways, if at all, do the train- 
ing of the intelligence and the imparting of knowledge, as 
commonly conducted in our schools, produce any effects in the 
improvement of character? 

6. How far is it true in the actual practise (a) of your own 
school, (b) of the schools of your state, that the moral end is 
neglected? How account for such neglect as exists? 

7. Over and above the brief statement in the text, compare 
the efficiency for moral education of the home (both the best 
homes and the average homes), the church and the school. 

8. As against the view that it is the duty of the school to 
make the improvement of character an integral part of its 
work, it is objected that the proper aim of the school is to 
impart knowledge and train the intelligence, and that the 
serious attempt to educate character will only distract the at- 
tention of the teachers from their real work. What is there 
to be said in favor of and against this view? 

9. In what ways may moral education be expected to im- 
prove the intellectual work of the pupils? 

401 



402 EXERCISES 

10. Illustrate the latent capacities for good in human nature 
as shown by the changes in conduct and character produced 
in boys or girls by the influence of other persons (in looking 
for illustrations, do not confuse the mischievous boy with the 
bad boy) . 

CHAPTER II 

THE PERSONALITY OF THE TEACHER 

1. Give illustrations from your own observation of the 
power of contagion to arouse the best in human nature. 

2. Give as definite a description as possible of the persons 
who have exercised this influence in any marked degree, point- 
ing out, in particular, its sources. 

3. Give some account of the teacher or teachers that exer- 
cised any marked influence for good upon you or your class- 
mates; if there were such, those who exercised an influence 
for evil. 

4. Describe, in detail, the way in which the teacher must 
treat the pupil if he is to exert upon him any influence for 
good. Consider the question, for instance, whether the 
teacher who uses sarcasm in the class room can expect to 
gain any influence over his pupils. Answer the same ques- 
tion for the teacher who is habitually suspicious of his pupils, 
who "bluffs," who is unwilling to acknowledge a mistake, who 
treats those of wealth or social standing in one way, and 
those without them in quite another way. Continue the list 
which is here just begun, till it covers all the most important 
cases. Give your reasons for your answers throughout; and 
appeal to your own experience or observation as far as pos-^ 
sible. 

5. What positive qualities of character must teachers pos- 
sess — i e. what must tliey do and be, as distinguished from 
what they must not do and be— if they are to exert upon their 
pupils the largest influence for good ? 

6. Examine the following statement : "Personal influence is 
often assumed to be greater the closer the intimacy. I be- 
lieve the opposite to be the case. FamiHarity, says the shrewd 
proverb, breeds contempt. . . . One who is to help us 
much must be above us." George H. Palmer, Moral Instruct 
tion in Schools, in The Teacher, page 67. 

7. Mention other limitations of the teacher's influence be- 
sides those enumerated in the text. 

8. Discuss in detail the extent and limitations of the influ- 



EXERCISES 403 

ence of women teachers upon boys, distinguishing between the 
various periods of school life. 

9. What can men teachers do for the girls in the seventh 
and eighth grades that women teachers can not do ? What for 
girls in the high school ? 

10. Is there anything in the present conditions of home life 
that makes the presence of men teachers in the school more 
imperative than it was a generation ago ? 

11. Consider in detail the kind of men and women that 
American society needs to-day. What traits of character 
ought we to take special pains to develop in our pupils, in 
view of these needs? 

CHAPTER III 

THE TEACHER AS A FRIEND 

1. How far have (a) advice and (b) exhortation really 
influenced your conduct and character? Under what condi- 
tions have they done so? Under what conditions have they 
failed? 

2. How far did the praise or blame of your teachers influ- 
ence you in your school-days? State the conditions under 
which it succeeded or failed. As far as possible answer this 
question for your schoolmates also. 

3. Did encouragement on the part of your teacher ever 
help you to do right when it was hard to do so ? 

4. Show in detail how the activities suggested In the fol- 
lowing quotation may affect the character of your pupils. 
How can you apply these principles to your own pupils ? What 
qualifications must the teacher possess for success in this kind 
of endeavor? 

"What the boy wants Is a standard, an aspiration, an aim 
for his energies, a high enthusiasm. It is a mistake in dealing 
with the young to separate too sharply the intellectual from 
the moral enthusiasm; they are closely connected and react 
on each other. If the teacher can help or encourage a boy 
to set a high aim for himself, to be no longer content with 
indifferent and half excited energy, to care deeply for some- 
thing requiring pains and persistence, and so to put his whole 
strength into the daily demands on his industry, then it is 
idle to say that the teacher's influence on that boy may not 
properly be called moral instruction." (Alfred Sidgwick, in 
Proceedings of the First International Moral Education Con- 
gress, p. 144.) 

5. If you have ever had an opportunity to observe a well- 



404 EXERCISES 

conducted adviser system in a high school, describe its work- 
ings and effects. 

6. Should teachers encourage their pupils to come to them 
freely for advice on matters which do not concern their school 
work? (It may be said that the experts differ in their an- 
swers to this question.) 

7. State your own observations with regard to the condi- 
tions upon which friendly relations between teacher and pupils 
depend. 

8. There are many cases where it is comparatively easy to 
make good boys out of bad. For example, where a boy orig- 
inally good has been soured or otherwise ruined by unsym- 
pathetic or unjust or cruel parents. Make as long a list as 
possible of such cases. It will help you in diagnosing par- 
ticular situations. (Remember, as was insisted in Chapter I, 
that the mischievous boy must not be confused with the bad 
boy.) 

9. As an illustration of the necessity of varying one's plan 
according to the nature of the pupils, consider how to deal 
respectively with the vain (attractive or successful), and the 
sullen (unattractive or unsuccessful) pupil. A good discus- 
sion of this subject, with which the teacher may compare his 
own conclusions, will be found in a paper by Mrs. Ella Flagg 
Young in University of Chicago Contributions to Education, 
No. 4, p. 16. 

10. As an illustration of the necessity of knowing home con- 
ditions, consider the method of dealing with a boy who is con- 
stantly beaten at home by a drunken or natively brutal or 
suspicious father ; or the method of dealing with a boy who 
is constantly pampered by overindulgent parents. What dif- 
ference is there between the way you would proceed with 
either of these boys and the way you would deal with a re- 
calcitrant boy from a normal home? Think up other ex- 
amples of the principle here in question, illustrating them, if 
possible, from observation. 

11. Discuss the following maxim: "Try to see reasons for 
the bad ; they are often good reasons." 

CHAPTER IV 

THE TONE OF THE SCHOOL 

1. What elements in your town life affect the tone of the 
school? Where such influences are bad, how deal with the 
situation? Where good, how foster them? How get the bet- 



EXERCISES 405 



ter influences of the community to bear more effectively upon 
the school? 

2. How can principals and teachers make membership in 
the school council a position of dignity and influence? 

3. Make some suggestions besides those in the text as to 
what the members of such a council can do toward elevating 
and purifying the tone of the school. Work out in some detail 
the suggestions of the text. 

4. What kinds of pupils most influence public opinion in 
the elementary school? In the high school? Answer sepa- 
rately for boys and gii;ls. 

5. How is this influence exerted? 

6. What kind of pupils have most influence, whether for 
good or evil, upon individual members of the school? Are 
these pupils the same as those of question 4? 

7. Every school contains boys and girls who have the intel- 
lectual and other qualifications for leadership, but who, for 
any one of a number of reasons, do not care to assume such 
a position. How develop in such pupils the willingness or the 
desire to lead, particularly in matters where moral issues are 
in any way concerned? 

8. Is any danger to the pupil's scholarship involved in 
awakening in him an interest in school leadership? If so, is 
the principal or teacher justified in taking such a step? 

9. Describe some other methods of molding public opinion 
in the school through the pupils besides the methods spe- 
cifically referred to in the text. For example, in what way 
can the publications be used to this end ? 



CHAPTER V 

THE DISCIPLINE OF THE SCHOOL 

1. Give your own illustrations of the distinction between 
outer conformity and inner loyalty to the moral ideal? 

2. Define sentimentality. How does it arise and grow in a 
person's character? Why is it a very dangerous element? 

3. State some of the many other reasons besides the one 
mentioned in the text why inner loyalty is desirable as well as 
outer conformity. 

4. What other qualities of character are there besides those 
enumerated on pages 43 and 44, which the routine of school 
discipline has no tendency to foster? 

5. Illustrate from your own observation the principle that 



406 EXERCISES 

"No virtue is safe that is not enthusiastic." (Enthusiasm 
must, of course, be distinguished from gush.) 

6. State the thesis and summarize in your own words the 
argument of pages 45 to 48. Criticize it in the sense of 
making a critical examination with a view to determining pre- 
cisely how much truth and error it contains. 

7. Verify from your own observation the assertion that 
punishment may have effects upon character by producing real 
repentance for wrong-doing. 

8. Is punishment likely to do positive harm where it is felt 
to be undeserved? Illustrate. 

9. Show in what ways the teacher may get the sentiment of 
the class back of him when it is necessary to punish a pupil. 

10. Give illustrations of the salutary effects of reproof or 
punishment under such circumstances. 

11. Can you think of any cases of what you would regard 
as just punishment of a pupil which his fellow pupils could 
not be made to see was just? 

12. How would you attempt by reasoning with a pupil to 
make him see that he had done wrong and deserved punish- 
ment for any one of a number of common school offenses? 

13. Give illustrations showing in the concrete how punish- 
ment can be made the "consequence of a wrong turned back 
upon the offender." 

14. Discuss the question of corporal punishment in the 
school. 

15. Discuss the place of drudgery in adult life. 

16. Professor James wrote in Collier's Weekly for Feb- 
ruary 8, 1913, as follows : "We have grown literally afraid to 
be poor. When we of the so-called better classes are scared 
as men were never scared in history at material ugliness and 
hardships; when we put off marriage until our home can be 
artistic, and quake at the thought of having a child without 
a bank account, and doomed to manual labor, it is time for 
thinking men to protest against so unmanly and irreligious a 
state of opinion. It is certain that the prevalent fear of pov- 
erty among the educated classes is the worst moral disease 
from which our civilization suffers." The editor adds in the 
same issue : "The time has come for a movement wide-spread 
and sincere back to the iron of life where stern work was 
faced, where pain was endured, and where the whole af life 
in its rigor was accepted." Do you agree with these state- 
ments? If so, what effects, if any, should they have upon 
school life? 

17. Do you agree with President Faunce's strictures upon 
our prevalHng methods of education, as expressed in a state- 
ment quoted by him, with approval, in an article in the Edu- 



EXERCISES 407 

cattonal Review, Vol. 29, p. 372 ? "We sugar coat all our pills 
of learning. Is there not a wholesome tonic in the old-fash- 
ioned method of learning the disagreeable thing, of being sure 
that two and two do make four, and can by no possibility be 
twisted into anything else? The hard places of life must be 
faced sooner or later, and though one wants to shield children 
and young people as far as possible, yet it is no true educa- 
tion which does not give them a certain hardness of intellec- 
tual and m.oral fiber which will enable them to face their own 
difficulties and to accept even defeat always with a strong 
purpose of turning it into victory. Is there not such a thing 
as carrying the doctrine of working in the line of least re- 
sistance too far, both in intellectual and moral matters?" 

18. Is there a moral factor in the inability complained of 
by Mr, Brooks Adams in the following quotation from the 
Atlantic Monthly, Vol. Ill, p. 433? Is what he asserts true? 
If so, does it represent a serious situation? Are the schools 
in any part responsible for it? If so, should they attempt to 
do anything to prevent such a situation from arising in the 
next generation? "A marked peculiarity of the present gen- 
eration of Americans is its impatience of prolonged demands 
on the attention, especially if the subject be tedious. . . . 
No one can imagine that such papers as Hamilton, Madison 
and Jay wrote for the New York local newspapers could be 
printed in our daily press, or if they were, that any one would 
read them." And yet, as he goes on to show, the public ques- 
tions of to-day are essentially as important and as compli- 
cated as those of 1787. 

19. Is there enough hard work (a) In our elementary 
schools, (b) In our high schools? If not, is this due to meth- 
ods, subject-matter, or standards? 

20. What are the moral effects of allowing pupils to do 
shoddy work in school? 

21. Illustrate from your experience or observation the ne- 
cessity of a pupil's discovering that hard work can be a 
source of satisfaction, not merely afterward, but at the time, 
through the joy that comes (as in a game) in struggling with 
and overcoming difficulties. 

22. How can we introduce Into our courses In history, sci- 
ence and modern language that continuous struggle with genu- 
ine and serious difficulties which is characteristic of the study 
of Latin, Greek and mathematics at their best? 



408 EXERCISES 



CHAPTER VI 

PUPIL GOVERNMENT 

1. Is pupil government (a) practicable, (b) desirable in 
your school? 

2. Discuss the qualifications necessary for a teacher in a 
school in which pupil government is in operation. Are they 
identical with those of the principal as enumerated on 
page 58? 

3. What would be the wish of your pupils with regard to 
pupil government? Answer separately for boys and girls. 

4. Why is machinery, for machinery's sake, worse than 
useless? 

5. Consider the objection urged against pupil government 
that what we need in the United States is not more freedom, 
but more respect for law, as something over us to which we 
must submit our wills ; that accordingly the best civic training 
which the school can give the pupil is by means of a strict 
enforcement of school law by the principal. 

6. Consider the following criticism of pupil government: 
"Selfhood can not come out of the so-called 'pupil govern- 
ment' This is still 'other hood,' in which the fear of the 
teacher is replaced by fear of the fellow student. I would 
rather have my child fear a teacher than a pupil. Such gov- 
ernment is only temporary, lacks the essential element of 
freedom, and does not attain to selfhood." (W. I. Crane, 
in The School Review, Vol. 9, p. 362.) 

7. Suggest some steps in the direction of pupil government 
(as pupil supervision of the playground during recess).^ Is it 
desirable to introduce a few features of the system without 
introducing the system as a whole? 

8. When the principal thinks it unwise to introduce a 
formal system of pupil government into the school, how can 
the teacher introduce the spirit of pupil government into his 
class room? 

9. Give illustrations of how pupils, in the absence of a 
formal system of pupil government, may be employed to deal 
effectively with special cases of wrong-doing. 

10. Give an account of the personality of a principal capable 
of obtaining results such as those described on page 68. 

11. Discuss the advisability of introducing the honor sys- 
tem into the examinations and preparation for school work in 
your school or class. 

12. Formulate a statement which you think would be ef- 



EXERCISES 409 

fective in making your pupils realize the obligations of hon- 
esty in examinations and other test work (for a suggestion, 
see Chapter XVII, page 294). 

13. If an honor system is established, some effective method 
must be devised for discovering whether it is working suc- 
cessfully. One such method is suggested on page 70. Sug- 
gest other methods. 

CHAPTER VII 

MUTUAL AID IN CLASS WORK 

1. Show in detail the ways in which hand work, especially 
manual training and domestic science, can be used to develop 
a spirit of mutual aid and of respect for the rights of others. 

2. On the basis of the suggestions in the text work out 
some methods of training in mutual aid through learning to 
read. 

3. The same for learning to write. 

4. The same for nature study. 

5. Give additional suggestions for cooperative work in his- 
tory and civics. 

6. Discuss the general problem of using pupil teachers and 
pupil critics. What are the elements of strength and weak- 
ness in such a method from both the intellectual and moral 
point of view? 

7. Is it possible to eliminate the dangers of fostering conceit 
and vanity on the one side, and discouragement and envy on 
the other side, in conducting classes by a system of mutual 
aid? If so, how? 

8. Is it possible to diminish the danger of pauperizing 
through the indiscriminate giving of aid, while yet retaining 
the essentials of the system? If so, how? 

9. Is it possible to avoid making the system of mutual aid 
appear to the members of the class as a mere system of intel- 
lectual or moral gymnastics ? If so, how ? 

10. Give an account of the results of the system, if you 
have ever had an opportunity to watch it operating, partially 
or completely, in the class room. 

11. Consider the place of self-reliance in life. What teach- 
ing methods are most favorable to its development? Is the 
method of mutual aid likely to be favorable to its develop- 
ment? 

12. In the moral interest of our pupils should rivalry in 
class work be encouraged, permitted, discouraged, or ex- 
cluded in our schools? By rivalry is here meant the use of 



410 EXERCISES 



marks, honors, prizes, pitting one pupil against another, and 
similar incentives. 

The following are statements of opposing views on this 
subject: "In the name of the boy I protest against the tend- 
ency to discourage honest rivalry in the school. I doubt 
whether too much rivalry is necessary or desirable for girls. 
This question, however, is one for women and evolution 
to answer. With men life is a contest, and fortunately most 
boys love a contest. ... It is not the true masculine 
spirit which says, 'Never have honors in a school. Never 
pit two individuals or sides against each other. Never in- 
quire whether John can do better work than William, but only 
whether John's present record shows any improvement over 
his past' If a school for boys is to be conducted on this 
basis it will run out of harmony with the laws of life. . . . 
A keen German critic says : 'Their amiable good nature Is in 
a certain sense a great virtue of the Americans; in another 
sense their great failing. It is actually his good nature which 
permits him everywhere to overlook carelessness and crook- 
edness and so oppose with latent resistance all efforts to re- 
form.' " (Reuben Post Halleck in The School Review, Vol. 
14, pp. 513-516. Cf. MacCunn, The Making of Character, 
Part II, Ch. IV, The School.) "I have been thirty-five years 
in the schoolroom as a pupil and teacher; have lived a good 
part of that time (with regret be it said) in the atmosphere 
of prizes and percentages; have watched their false spur and 
unnatural coloring of character; have looked upon noble am- 
bition perverted to things abnormal; have seen the physical, 
intellectual and moral wreckage that ensued ; and as the result 
of personal investigation and personal experience I do not 
hesitate to pronounce the whole system of incentives [he 
means prizes, marks and similar things] as abnormal, unprof- 
itable, false and immoral. Their entire tendency is to tem- 
porary result, to stifle interest, to the recognition of an un- 
natural means to an end, to the development of the selfish 
spirit, and to dishonest practise, as well as to over-pressure 
and over-nervous and physical strain." (Preston W. Search 
in Educational Review, Vol. II, p. 140. _ Cf . Mrs. Ella Flagg 
Young in University of Chicago Contributions to Education, 
No. 4, pp. 12-16.) 

13. It has been asserted that our present methods of teach- 
ing stimulate in our pupils the desire to get rather than to 
give, (a) Is the stimulation of the desire to get necessarily 
an evil? — may there not be reasons why our pupils ought to 
desire to get both knowledge and intellectual power? Con- 
sider whether the activities of the gymnasium are not a 



EXERCISES 411 

parallel case. Are we morally injuring boys when we employ 
for them a teacher who trains them to skill on the trapese and 
the Swedish horse? (b) Is the desire to get necessarily ex- 
clusive of the desire to give? Will one who has no desire to 
get be likely ever to give much of value to any one else? 
(c) Contrast with the formula quoted above the following 
statement of the moral problem of the teacher with reference 
to class-room work : The aim of the teacher should be to 
arouse and strengthen the desire to acquire knowledge and 
intellectual power; to supply the best means for the attain- 
ment by the pupil of such knowledge and power ; and to at- 
tempt to awaken and strengthen the desire to share one's in- 
tellectual and other acquisitions with others in so far as it is 
possible to do so without inflicting harm upon them. 

CHAPTER VIII 

THE SERVICE OF THE SCHOOL 

1. What could the pupils in your school and class do for 
the benefit of the^school in the sense of Chapter VIII? 

2. Specifically, what could your pupils do for the care or 
improvement of the school building or grounds? 

3. What could your best pupils do for the character of 
their fellow pupils? Answer separately for boys and girls in 
all three questions. 

4. Give additional suggestions as to the use of the social 
motive in teaching to read and write. 

5. On the basis of your own experience or observation de- 
scribe the influence upon character of work for one's school. 

6. Show how each of the activities of the Parker School 
tends to emphasize the altruistic element in each of the other 
forms of service, so that whereas any one of them by itself' 
might be conducted without marked benefit, all of them to- 
gether tend to produce an effect upon character far greater 
than the sum of the individual benefits. 

CHAPTER IX 

MORAL TRAINING THROUGH THE EXTRA-CURRICULAR 
ACTIVITIES OF THE SCHOOL 

1. Give illustrations of your own, showing that breadth and 
variety of experience help us to put ourselves in the place of 
others, and thus tend to make us more considerate of their 
rights. 

2. What are the advantages of membership in "gangs," or 



412 EXERCISES 

in the informal associations of youth which, according to f ^ o 
text (page 109) can not be secured by the school organizations 
described in this chapter? 

3. Would the system described in this chapter have helped 
you as a high-school pupil? If so, in what ways? 

4. How do the high-school boys with whom you are ac- 
quainted spend their leisure time ? Do they spend it in ways 
which are advantageous to themselves, physically, intellectu- 
ally, or morally? In ways that are harmful? 

5. What are the objections to solving the problem of extra- 
curricular activities in the high school by means of fra- 
ternities ? 

6. Discuss the good and evil effects upon character of 
athletics. 

7. Compare the value of intra-mural and Interscholastic 
athletics. Should the latter be suppressed? 

8. What are the qualifications of a successful adviser of a 
high-school club? 

9. Work out in detail, as far as possible, what the club ad- 
viser can do for the character of the members of his club. 

10. Do high-school pupils object to the necessity of having 
advisers for their clubs? Do they welcome it? 

11. Can you suggest other methods of bringing the boys 
and girls of the high school together in healthful forms of 
association besides the dancing party? 

12. Should the teacher, in particular the adviser, make a 
systematic or otherwise serious attempt to get recruits for 
these organizations, or should no pressure of any sort to join 
be exerted upon the pupils by the teacher or principal? 

13. What is the moral value of these organizations, apart 
from the opportunity they give for the teacher to exercise an 
influence for good upon their members? 

14. Can any part of this system be introduced Into the ele- 
mentary school, and if possible would it be desirable to do so? 

CHAPTER X 

DIRECT TRAINING IN CITIZENSHIP 

1. Consider the various aspects of the problem of entrust- 
ing charitable work to school children, more particularly to 
high-school pupils. What forms of such work can they do 
effectively? What forms should not be placed in their hands? 

2. What needs has your city in the matter of charitable 
work which the pupils of your school could meet? 

3. What could the pupils of your schools do for your city 



EXERCISES 413 

in the way of "cleaning up," helping to maintain law and or- 
der, and similar forms of activity? Would it be desirable for 
them to undertake any of these activities? 

4. If your city has a business men's club, commercial club, 
or other similar civic organization, what could the pupils of 
the schools do to aid it in its work? 

5. What activities similar to those of the Two Rivers high 
school could be started and ought to be started by the high- 
school pupils of your own town? 

6. What are the more serious difficulties which you would 
be called upon to face in starting work of this kind? What 
special advantages are there in your municipal situation? 

7. Are there any objections to having this kind of work 
undertaken by high-school pupils? Are the objections serious? 

8. Have you any criticism to make of the methods described 
in the American City, Vol. II, pp. 20-23, the essential features 
of which are covered by the following statements : "Our field 
work is of two kinds. At first the attempt is made to famil- 
iarize the student with what the city has already done. For 
this purpose walks are taken on Saturdays, and most of the 
boys go along. . . . We next try to ascertain what yet re- 
mains to do. In this connection defective administration of 
the city government is considered. To this end each student 
receives a suggestive program, such as this : An ill paved 
street. A bill board. Faults in garbage collection. Children 
in the street. Defacement of the mountains, and of the river 
front. A smoking stack. A dirty alley. A disreputable va- 
cant lot. Grade crossing blockade. Each boy then turns in 
a series of observations on these various topics to the section 
secretary, of which there are several. The secretaries then 
classify these observations, and prepare letters of protest to 
be forwarded to the proper authorities." 

9. An educational journal gives an account of some work 
carried on by high-school boys somewhat similar in nature 
to that of Two Rivers, though far more limited in range. 
It concludes by saying: "Credit will be given to both boys 
and girls." The article bears the heading: "High School 
Instills Ideals of Service." Can a system that grants credit 
for work of this kind be said to "instill ideals of service" ? 

CHAPTER XI 

THE NATURE AND CONDITIONS OF EFFECTIVE MORAL TRAINING 

1. With the subject-matter of this and the preceding chap- 
ters in mind, show in what sense and how it is possible to train 
a child into habits of truthfulness, kindness and forgiveness. 



414 EXERCISES 

2. Give illustrations of the metliod of moral training which 
I have called 'leading the horse to water" (page 141). 

3. Give illustrations from your own observation or experi- 
ence of persons entering upon a course of action for one fno- 
tive and then becoming interested in it for its own sake and 
continuing for the latter reason. 

4. ^ How can you kill laziness in some one else and replace 
it with the love of work? 

5. Give illustrations from your own experience of develop- 
ing and strengthening in your pupils, allies of right-doing. 

6. The author has repeatedly asserted that, broadly speak- 
ing, at least, those activities have the most power to develop 
character which involve some sacrifice of present inclination. 
This, for instance, is one ground on which the method of 
Chapter X is placed higher in the scale than that of Chapter 
VII. Does such a statement mean that only those actions 
have moral value that are disagreeable in the doing, or does 
it mean something very different? 

7. In your own school, under the conditions now obtaining 
there, which of the methods of moral training described in 
Chapters V to X would be likely to be most effective? 

8. The statement is made in this chapter that "there is at 
bottom no form of moral discipline but self-discipline." What 
light does this statement throw upon the fact that so much of 
what parents and teachers do in the way of moral training 
seems to remain without permanent effect? 

9. Examine the methods of moral training described in 
Chapters V to X, and show which of the principles enumer- 
ated in the present chapter is illustrated in each. Where two 
or more principles are illustrated, report to that effect 

CHAPTER XII 

AIMS OF MORAL INSTRUCTION 

1. Consider the people with whom you are acquainted. 
How often have you found them doing wrong without any 
clear recognition on- their part that their conduct was wrong? 
As you look back upon your own life do you find that this has 
been true of yourself also? 

2. Show in some detail the amount and variety of loss, 
pain and sorrow caused by thoughtlessness ; the value to a 
family or a community of a member who is habitually 
thoughtful of the comfort, feelings and interests of others. 

3. Consider how many situations you have been in your- 



EXERCISES 415 

self or have been asked to advise others about, where with 
your best efforts you were unable to decide what was right to 
do or what wrong. 

4. Are these experiences peculiar to adults or do they hold 
for the lives of children and young people also? 

5. What, according to your observation, has been the ef- 
fects of enlightenment in any of the above cases? 

6. Show in some detail how to awaken interest, apprecia- 
tion and admiration in any one of the following fields : litera- 
ture, music, painting, the beautiful in nature, some department 
of science. Take some specific illustration in each instance, 
preferably a case where you have opened the eyes of a pupil 
to some part of the world to whose values he had hitherto 
been insensible. 

7. Explain the fact that many a man will risk his life 
to save the life of a stranger but would not take any serious 
trouble or make any serious sacrifice to do him a great service 
short of that. 

8. Is the analogy between teaching a boy to box and teach- 
ing him to control his temper a sound one ? Work out a brief 
plan of instruction for the latter. 

9. Find your own illustrations of the effects of vivid reali- 
zation upon our interest in the condition or situation of other 
people, and of our own future. Discover as many facts of 
human nature and human conduct which this principle will 
explain as possible. Is it true that we care nothing whatever 
about situations which we can not imagine vividly? Give as 
exact a statement of the facts of the case as possible. 

10. In your observation is it the more optimistic or the less 
optimistic that are most ready to contribute to the good of the 
persons about them and to serve the community as a whole? 

11. In your observation is it the more cynical or is it those 
who take a more favorable view of human nature who are 
more likely to be just, trustworthy, kind and public-spirited? 

12. Point out some of the sacrifices made by others from 
which we profit but which we habitually ignore. Include in 
the survey the sacrifices of past generations. 

13. How did the idea come into existence that the good 
boy is a namby-pamby boy? Show that for the good boy, in 
the proper sense of the term good, the facts are the precise 
opposite. By what means can this idea be uprooted from the 
community ? 

14. Discuss the effects upon children of the discovery of 
evil and suffering in the world, having in mind primarily chil- 
dren of the age of your pupils. Consider in some detail how 
the revelation of these things should be made to them. 



416 EXERCISES 

15. (a) Can I seriously injure myself without injuring 
others? (b) Can I seriously injure others without injuring 
myself, not only in character but in other respects also? 
Work out the answer by studying a number of concrete in- 
stances. 

CHAPTER XIII 

TRAINING IN MORAL THOUGHTFULNESS 

1. When you were punished by your parents as a young 
child did you ever feel that the punishment was unjust? If 
so, under what conditions? Inquire among your friends to 
discover what were their experiences in this respect. The 
purpose of the question is to discover whether as a child you 
necessarily thought an action was wrong merely because you 
were forbidden by your parents to do it. 

2. Consider how far in your own experience your teachers 
and parents were able to change your ideas in regard to right 
and wrong concerning matters about which you already felt 
strongly. How far have you as a teacher been able to pro- 
duce changes of conviction in your pupils under similar cir- 
cumstances ? 

3. Can you recall instances where you have persuaded a 
person that some long-held and deep-rooted conviction of his 
was false, and then found an hour later that he had returned 
completely to his original view ? 

CHAPTER XIV 

MORAL INSTRUCTION THROUGH THE EXISTING CURRICULUM 

' 1. In what ways can the study of geography be made to 
contribute to moral education ? 

2. "To see a simple phenomenon in nature and report it 
fully and correctly is not an easy matter, but the habit of try- 
ing to do so teaches what truthfulness is and leaves the im- 
pression of truth upon the whole Hfe and character." If this 
assertion means that the pursuit of truth tends to make one 
desirous of telling the truth show the error. 

3. What should be the influence of the scientific spirit upon 
our habits of judging our neighbor? Upon looking at the 
problems of life not merely from the narrow point of view of 



EXERCISES 417 



immediate effects, but also from the point of view of their 
place in a larger whole with effects reaching out indefinitely 
in every direction. What other influences should the scien- 
tific spirit have upon our conduct and our outlook upon life? 

4. What is likely to be the influence of the study of science 
upon our conception of and confidence in human progress? 

5. Discuss on the basis of your own experience and ob- 
servation the extent to which the personages of history influ- 
ence the character of those who study and read about them. 
(Reference is here made to the great men and women with 
whom we become acquainted through works on history in the 
more exact sense of that term, and not through biographies. 
The latter form of acquaintanceship is of course far more 
intimate.) 

6. Examine the history text-books with which you are 
familiar to see how far they are written from the point of 
view of cause and effect. 

7. Work out a sketch of some period of history from the 
point of view of cause and effect. The period 1783-1789 in 
United States history will serve very well for this purpose. 

8. As an introduction to an understanding of the organic 
nature of society show the extent to which one man in harm- 
ing himself harms others also. Take as an illustration drunk- 
enness, and show how many different parties may be injured 
by the habitual drunkenness of one. Under "parties" may be 
included not merely individuals but communities. 

9. Illustrate in detail how history may be taught so as to 
develop the imagination. ("You shall make me feel what 
periods you have lived.") ^ 

10. Show by illustration how history may be used to 
awaken in the young an appreciation of the value of the 
political institutions under which they live. 

11. Do our present text-books do anything to train the 
spirit of fairness by their presentations of (a) the British 
side of the controversy which led to the American Revolution, 
(b) the southern side of the events which led to the Civil 
War? ^ 

12. How use American history to develop a sense of the 
responsibility which the United States has to the future of 
the world? 

, 13. Work out concretely the effects upon character that 
may be expected to flow from the properly conducted teach- 
ing of a selected period of history. 

14. How far would the application of the principles laid 
down In this chapter modify the subject-matter and methods 
of teaching In our history courses? 



418 EXERCISES 

15. What if anything can be done in the teaching of history 
to aid the movement for international good will and interna- 
tional peace? 

16. Show that literature can perform the first three offices 
of history (as enumerated in the earlier portions of Chapter 
XIV) as well as history itself. 

17. Give additional illustrations of the fact that literature 
can represent the fundamental realities of existence in certain 
respects more completely and accurately than history can. 

18. Show how the pupils in the elementary school may be 
led to apply the incidents described in their reading to the 
events of their own lives, thereby making the material read 
appear more vivid and real. As an example take Arthur's 
saying his prayers in Tom Brown at Rugby. 

19. What follows from the doctrine of this chapter as to 
the kind of material that should be chosen for reading in 
English work? What standards or tests should we apply in 
selecting such material? 

20. Make a list of the novels with which you are acquainted 
that give a real insight into life, and state what characteristics 
of human nature and what principles of human existence each 
one of them presents to view. 

21. Which of the first two named aims of civic instruc- 
tion is more likely to arouse the interest of the members of 
the class? Why? 

22. Which is more likely to have an influence upon their 
conduct now and later in life, as citizens ? 

23. Which should determine the choice of text-book? To 
which should be given the greater amount of time and atten- 
tion? 

24. What institutions, political and social, are there in your 
community with which the members of a civics class ought to 
be made acquainted? 

25. How can civics be used so to train the pupils that they 
will admire the right kind of political leaders ? 

26. How can a course in civics develop in its members a 
love of their country and of their city? 

27. What political virtues ought the teacher of a civics 
course to attempt to develop in his pupils, and to what po- 
litical duties ought he to open their eyes? Let the answer be 
specific and not general. 

28. Are "civic virtues" different in kind from other virtues 
and thus in a class by themselves, or are the civic virtues 
merely special forms of the ordinary virtues of every-day life? 



EXERCISES 419 



CHAPTER XV 

MORAL INSTRUCTION THROUGH BIOGRAPHY 

1. What evidence can you offer of the Influence of biog- 
raphy upon character? As far as possible show how the in- 
fluence was exerted. 

2. Can the reading of biography obtain its best results un- 
less it is guided by a teacher who knows how to direct the 
child what to look for? 

3. Examine the following statement and discuss its Impli- 
cations. "Why should the teacher rely upon his own unaided 
example more than the preacher ? No teacher can feel that he 
embodies in himself, except in an imperfect way, the strong 
moral ideals that have made the history of good men worth 
reading. No matter what resources he may have in his own 
character, the teacher needs to employ moral forces that lie 
outside of himself, ideals toward which he struggles and to- 
ward which he inspires and leads others. The very fact that 
he appreciates and admires a man like Longfellow or Peter 
Cooper will stir the children with like feelings. In this sense 
it is a mistake to center all attention upon the conduct of the 
teacher — it is better for the pupil and teacher to enter into 
the companionship of common aims and ideals. For them to 
study together and admire the conduct of Roger Williams 
is to bring them into closer sympathy, and what do teachers 
need more than to get into personal sympathy with their chil- 
dren?" (Charles McMurry, Elements of General Method, 
page 33.) 

4. What is likely to be the effect of biography upon con- 
ceit and self-satisfaction? 

5. Is there any serious danger that In the study of biog- 
raphy the pupil of not more than average attainments will 
grow discouraged with himself and discontented with his lot? 
How meet a difficulty of that kind? 

6. What concrete effects might reasonably be expected to 
follow a study of the life of (a) Franklin, (b) Lincoln? If 
familiar with their lives, answer in detail. 

7. Will personahties that appeal primarily to boys appeal to 
girls also? What about the opposite case? Give your rea- 
sons for your answer. 

8. What characters in American history appeal most to (a) 
boys, (b) girls? Answer for each of the different periods of 
school life. 

9. What are the disadvantages of confining our biograph- 



420 EXERCISES 

ical studies in the school to Americans? Do the advantages 
outweigh the disadvantages? 

10. There are certain advantages in a course dealing with a 
large number of characters. Name them. Do they compen- 
sate for the disadvantages enumerated in the text and others 
that could be mentioned? 

11. Show the value for intellectual training of the method 
of study by the formulation of a limited number of questions 
on the text, as recommended on page 244. 

12. Does it appear from the list of questions on Franklin's 
life in London that the questions which the class ask ought in 
every case or even usually to have some direct bearing upon 
the man's moral life or upon some moral issue? What answer 
to this question follows from the statement of the immediate 
aims of this biographical study, page 248? 

13. Discuss the advisabihty and the method of celebrating 
in the school the birthdays of a considerable number of great 
men and women. How far would it be desirable to include 
the special benefactors of children such as Hans Christian 
Andersen and Louisa M. Alcott? 



CHAPTERS XVI AND XVII 



THE SYSTEMATIC STUDY OF THE CONDUCT OF LIFE! ITS AIMS 
A PROGRAM FOR THE SYSTEMATIC STUDY OF THE CONDUCT OF LIFE 

1. Mention other objections besides those in the text 
against the sufficiency of the incidental method of moral in- 
struction. 

2. Would it be possible to teach geography or United States 
history satisfactorily by the incidental method? Give your 
reasons for your answer. 

3. How far, in your opinion, does the average person realize 
the extent and gravity of the evil effects of his actions when 
he does wrong? 

4. To test the completeness of your own awareness of the 
effects of your actions, write a list of the effects of a lie and 
compare it with the hints supplied in Chapter XVII, pages 
302 to 305. To make the question concrete : Suppose a teacher 
in attempting to advance himself makes statements known by 
him to be false about the character or qualifications of another 
teacher. Enumerate not merely the effects of such lies (if suc- 
cessful) upon their victim and the educational interests of the 
community, but their effects upon the confidence which peoj^e 




EXERCISES 421 

have in one another, upon the number of lies told in the com- 
munity, and similar effects. 

5. To show once more the value of reflection upon moral 
problems, answer as fully as possible the question, What can 
I do for the improvement of the character of my pupils, and 
compare it with the answer you would have given before you 
began to reflect systematically upon this subject. 

6. In Moral Instruction and Training in Schools, page xxv, 
Professor Sadler writes as follows : "There is in our country 
an ideal of practical morality which for practical purposes 
can be taken as the basis for school teaching by thinkers of 
almost all schools of thought. On this point all our witnesses 
with few exceptions agree. That such a basis exists is shown 
by the fact that the admirable definition of the aims and scope 
of moral instruction and training contained in the English 
code for public elementary day schools has been approved by 
all sections of public opinion." Professor Sadler is here re- 
ferring to England. Could the same statement be made about 
the United States ? In the syllabus for the elementary school, 
published in the Appendix of this book, and in the syllabus 
for the high school in Chapter XVII, there is assumed more 
or less implicitly a code of morals. Would this code be gen- 
erally accepted in the United States? 

7. Illustrate the aims of the first of the three departments 
of moral instruction as enumerated on page 261, by an ex- 
amination of the syllabus for the high school in Chapter 
XVII or the syllabus for the elementary school in the 
Appendix. 

8. Examine the ideal of the New York Ethical Culture 
School as stated in the following, and work out just what it 
would mean when applied to class instruction. Compare it 
with the programs offered in this book: *Tn order to avoid 
the indeterminateness that ordinarily attaches to the word 
character, a specifically American democratic ideal is set up 
as the goal to be reached ; an ideal related to the circum- 
stances, the needs and the higher aspirations of the American 
people; an ideal of men and women profoundly interested 
in human progress, able and anxious to contribute, each ac- 
cording to his gifts, to that progress, and conscious of being 
called to the task of reforming, according to his opportunities, 
the faulty (and in some ways unjust and unlovely) world in 
which they will play their parts." (Percival Chubb in Sadler, 
Moral Instruction and Training in Schools, Vol. II, p. 246.) 

9. Illustrate what is meant by a theory of self-control by 
answering in detail the question : How should one go about 
the task of gaining control over a bad temper ? 



422 EXERCISES 

10. Discuss the influence upon conduct of proverbs, maxims, 
and "memory gems." Under what conditions, if any, will 
they affect conduct? Under what conditions will they not? 
For interesting data see Pedagogical Seminary, Vol. 5, pages 
30-35, and M. V. O'Shea, Social Development and Education, 
pp. 497-499. 

11. Bring together the statements of this and the preceding 
chapters which justify the five assertions with regard to the 
methods recommended by this book, on page 277. 

12. We see mainly what we look for and to look for a 
thing is mainly to ask questions concerning it. To be able to 
ask questions is already to know a good deal about a subject, 
as will be obvious from the case of diagnosing a disease. Con- 
sequently most persons, perhaps all, have to be trained to see. 
With these facts in mind show how moral instruction is likely 
to increase the influence of the character of the high-minded 
teacher ov6r the pupil. 

13. In view of the contents of the present chapters and 
Chapters XII and XIII explain the supreme importance at- 
tached by Arnold to moral thoughtfulness, 

CHAPTER XVIII 

THE SYSTEMATIC STUDY OF THE CONDUCT OP LIFE : METHODS 

AND RESULTS 

1. Summarize from Chapters II, III, IX, XI and XVIII 
what is said about the character of the teacher as a factor in 
moral education. 

2. Are the qualifications in the way of insight, tempera- 
ment and character necessary for successfully conducting a 
course in moral instruction essentially different from those 
required for the work of moral training? 

3. What are the reasons why, if you told a boy you were 
going to give him a course in moral instruction, he would be 
likely to "shy" at it? 

4. How must the subject be handled so that the pupil will 
see from the first that you are not going to try to "work** 
him? The author believes that an examination of the pro- 
gram of Chapter XVII will supply one of several possible 
answers to this question. Is this problem the same for the 
elementary- as for the high-school pupil ? 

5. In a course in moral instruction what methods can we 
employ to make our pupils really think, and think hard and 
continuously about the problems of life? 



EXERCISES 423 

6. Discuss the relative value, in the elementary, and also in 
the high-school course, of illustrations drawn from books, as 
biography or literature, from the newspapers of the day, and 
from the observations of the pupil. 

7. Is there any serious danger of over-stimulating the con- 
science in a course in moral instruction? If the affirmative 
answer seems to be required would you say that this danger 
threatened equally all members of the class? How deal 
with it? 

8. How are we to meet the danger of creating sentimental- 
ity rather than right direction and vigor of will? 

9. To what extent are children interested in the moral 
aspects of life? Illustrate. 

10. Collect evidence from those who have tried it concern- 
ing the efficacy of systematic moral instruction. Study the 
results obtained in the light of as detailed a knowledge of 
their methods as is attainable. 

11. Show at greater length than is attempted in the text the 
value of moral instruction (a) as an equipment for the study 
of literature (whether in the elementary or high school) ; and 
(b) for the general training of the mental powers. 

Consider the following objections that have been urged 
against moral instruction : 

12. It involves an actual or implicit criticism of the child's 
parents. In so far as this objection involves a real difficulty, 
how deal with it? 

13. The only way to learn about life is to live. 

14. It makes life appear too serious to a child. Childhood 
ought to be as care free as possible. On this point consult 
Ruskin, A Crown of Wild Olives, Section 125. 

15. The mere fact that the teacher suggests one line of 
conduct for the boy will make him want to do the opposite. 

16. "It must be taught as one department of the school- 
day. Therefore the pupil will look upon morality as only one 
department among others." 

17. Classes in moral instruction "would have to be put 
down on the time-table at a certain hour each week. But the 
moment when one human being can influence another comes 
rarely, like an inspiration, and is dependent on the mood of 
both teacher and taught alike. And how can this mood be 
counted on to occur mechanically at a given moment each 
week?" 

18. "You might get splendid discourses and essays on the 
beauty of truth from the habitually untruthful, and the value 
of unselfishness from the most selfish. Knowing is not being 
able to do." 



424 EXERCISES 

19. There are few teachers specially trained for the work. 
We must wait till the normal schools and the universities 
have supplied adequately trained teachers. 

20. "Nor indeed is performance likely to be improved by 
ethical enlightenment if, as I maintain, the whole business of 
self-criticism in the child is unwholesome. By a course of 
ethical training a young person will, in my view, much more 
probably become demoralized than invigorated. What we 
ought to desire, if we would have a boy grow morally sturdy, 
is that introspection should not set in early and that he should 
not become accustomed to watch his conduct. And the reason 
is obvious. Much as we incline to laud our prerogative of 
consciousness and to assert that it is precisely what distin- 
guishes us from our poor relations, the brutes, we still must 
acknowledge that consciousness has certain grave defects 

.when exalted into the position of a guide. Large tracts of 
life lie altogether beyond its control, and the conduct which 
can be affected by it is apt — especially in the initial stages — 
to be rendered vague, slow, vacillating and distorted. Only 
instinctive action is swift, sure and firm. For this reason, 
we distrust the man who calculates his goodness. We find 
him vulgar and repellent. We are far from sure that he will 
keep that goodness long." (George H. Palmer, The Teacher, 
p. 38.) 



Bibliography 



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CHAPTER I 
The Place of Moral Education in the School 

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427 



428 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

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CHAPTERS n AND HI 

The Personality of the Teacher— The Teacher 
AS A Friend 

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Moral Force. Religious Education, vol. 4, pp. 550-560. 

JONES, H. B. — The Personal Influence of the Teacher. 
Education, vol. ZZ, pp. 499-502. 

MAXWELL, W. U.—The Personal Power of the Teacher. 
National Education Association, igo8, pp. 116-128. 

McANDREW, WILLIAM— 7/^^ Plague of Personality. 
School Review, vol. 22, pp. 315-325. Deals primarily with 
the relations between superintendent or principal and his 
teachers, but applies also to the relations between principal 
or teacher and pupils. 

SCUDDER, M. T.—A Study of High-School Pupils. School 
Review, vol. 7, pp. 197-214. A method by which the high- 
school principal and teachers may gain information about 
pupils when they come from the elementary schools. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 429 

YOUNG, MRS. ELLA FLAGG— Ethics in the School. Uni- 
versity of Chicago Contributions to Education, No. IV. 

HYDE, WM. DeWITT— T/j^ Teacher's Philosophy in and 
out of School. Riverside Educational Monograph. The 
second part, under the title The Personality of the 
Teacher, was first pubHshed in the Atlantic Monthly, vol. 
99, pp. 433-442, and was reprinted in the author's The Col- 
lege Man and the College Woman, pp. 247-274. 

O'SHEA, M. V. — Concerning High-School Teachers. School 
Review, vol. 10, pp. 778-795. 

PALMER, G. H.—The Ideal Teacher. The Teacher, pp. 3-30. 

CHAPTER VI 
Pupil Government 

BREWER, J. M. — Plans for Student Cooperation in School 
Government. (May, 1909) Educational Review, vol. Z7, 
pp. 519-525. An outline description of forms of pupil 
government in a number of schools. 

BURKE, JESSE D. — Democracy in American School Govern- 
ment, in Sadler's Moral Instruction and Training in the 
Schools, vol. 2, ch. xvi. Describes a school republic mod- 
eled closely in form after the government of the United 
States. 

CLAPP, H. L. — Self -Government in Public Schools. (Feb., 
1909) Education, vol. 29, pp. 335-344. A vigorous attack 
upon the Los Angeles experiment described by Miss 
Smith, referred to below. 

CORNMAN, O. P. — National Education Association, 1908, 
pp. 289-293. 

CRANE, W. I.— The Development of Moral Selfhood. School 
Review, vol. 9, pp. 362-364. This and the preceding attack 
the system. 

CRONSON, BERNARD— Pupil Self -Government. New 
York (1907) Macmillan Co. A very clear and compre- 
hensive account by one of the pioneers in the movement. 

FRENCH, C. W.— (1898-1905) School Review, vol. 6, p. 35; 
vol. 8, p. 201 ; vol. 13, p. 33. An excellent account of the 
system in the high school, its aims, methods and results, 
based upon personal experience in using it. 

GEORGE, W. R. — The Junior Republic. Ch. iii. 

GILL, W. L.—A New Citizenship. Philadelphia (1913). 
American Patriotic League. This is the most compre- 
hensive work on the subject. Its author is the founder of 
the School Republic movement in the United States. 



430 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

GILL, W. L. — National Education Association, igo8, pp. 285** 
289. 

NEUMANN, HENRY — National Education Association, 
1913, pp. 41-45. An excellent defense. 

OUTLOOK— (Aug., 1905) vol. 80, pp. 946-948; (Dec, 1908) 
vol 90, pp. 939-948; (April, 1909) vol. 91, pp. 777-77^. 
Chiefly descriptive of the School City. 

RAY, JOHN T. — Democratic Government of Our Schools 
(1899). Reprinted in part in King's Social Aspects of 
Education, pp. 291-298. Perhaps the best argument in 
behalf of the system. 

SCHOOL REVIEW— Editorial, vol. 22, pp. 56-57. 

SMITH, BERTHA N.— (Nov., 1908) Atlantic Monthly, vol. 
102, pp. 675-678. A very favorable report of pupil gov- 
ernment in the Los Angeles Polytechnic High School. 

WELLING, RICHARD— ^om^ Facts about Pupil Self-Gov- 
ernment. Reprinted in King, op. cit., pp. 298-303. 

In the Bibliography in King, op. cit, pp. 307-309, note the 
books on boys' clubs and on community organizations of 
young people. 

Address of the School City Committee, 2 Wall Street, New 
York, from whom some additional papers can be ob- 
tained on application. 



CHAPTER VII 
Mutual Aid in Class Work 

BAGLEY,^ W. C— School Discipline. New York (1915). 
Macmillan. Chs. vi and vii. 

CLARK, LOTTA— ^ Good Way to Teach History. School 
Review, vol. 17, pp. 255-266. 

DEWEY, JOHN— Mora/ Principles in Education. Boston 
(1909). Houghton Mifflin Co. Ch. iii. 

DEWEY, JOHN— r/i^ School and Society. Revised edition 
(1915). University of Chicago Press. 

MARK, H. T. — British Board of Education Special Reports, 
vol. 10, pp. 54-62. Report of a British Commissioner upon 
the University of Chicago Elementary School when con- 
ducted by Professor Dewey. 

SCOTT, COLIN A.— Social Education. Boston (1908). Ginn 
& Co. See in particular chs. v, vi, and vii. 

WILLIAMS, DORA— The Teaching of Physiology; John- 
ston, The Modern High School. Ch. ix. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 431 

CHAPTER VIII 
The Service of the School 

DEWEY, JOUN—Schools of To-morrow. New York (1915). 
Dutton. Ch. viii (The School as a Social Settlement). 

PARKER, FRANCIS W., SCHOOL— F^ar Books. Vols. 1-4 
(1912-1915). 

RIORDAN, RAYMOND—School Activities for Moral De- 
velopment, Religious Education, vol. 6, pp. 511-519. 

CHAPTER IX 

Moral Training through the Extra-Curricular 
Activities of the School 

ATLANTIC MONTHLY— Vol 113, pp. 145-160. Three arti- 
cles on athletics in their relation to the training of char- 
acter. 

DAVIS, JESSE B.— Social Activities in the High School. 
(June, 1913) Religious Education, vol. 8, pp. 219-224. An 
account of the system in operation at the Central High 
School, Grand Rapids, Mich. One aspect of the system is 
referred to in Chapter IV. 

DAVIS, JESSE B. — The Administration of the Social Activi- 
ties of High-School Students. Johnston — The Modern 
High School, ch. xvi. The two articles are substantially 
identical, but the second is a little more complete. 

HANNA, J. C. — High-School Fraternities and the Social Life 
of the School; Johnston, op. cit., ch. xx. Bibliography. 

JOHNSON, F. W.—The Social Organisation of the High 
School. (Dec, 1909) School Review, vol. 17, pp. 665-680. 
Reprinted in King's Social Aspects of Education, pp. 274- 
287. Some additional details will be found in an article by 
the same author in Religious Education, vol. 8, pp. 204-208. 
An article by Mr. Johnson in Religious Education, vol. 6, 
pp. 493-502 is practically identical with that in the School 
Review except that it is not quite so complete. 

KELLER, PAUL G. W. — Open School Organisations, School 
Review, vol. 13, pp. 10-14. 

NAISMITH, JAUES—High-School Athletics. Johnston, op. 
cit, ch. xvii. Bibliography. 

NASON, A. N.—The Cony High-School Assembly. School 
Review, vol. 14, pp. 505-511. Pupil management of the 
finances of high-school organizations. 



432 BIBLIOGRAPHY 



OWEN, W. B. — The Problem of the High-School Fraternity. 

School Review, vol. 14, pp. 492-504. 
STOWE, A. M. — Student Debating Activities. Johnston, op. 

cit., ch. xviii. Bibliography. 

CHAPTER XIV 

The Teaching of History 

ALLEN, J. W. — The Place of History in Education, pp. 46-55, 

132-135, 170-179. 
DEWEY, JOHN — Moral Principles in Education, pp. 38-40. 
GRIGGS, E. H. — Moral Education, ch, xx, 
HINSDALE, B. A. — How to Study and Teach History. Ch. i, 

The Educational Value of History; ch. ix, Cause and Ef- 
fect in History. 
McMURRY, CUKRUES— Elements of General Method 

(1903), pp. 27-50 (discussion of the study of literature as 

well as history). 
SCHAEFFER, N. C. — National Education Association, 1907, 

pp. 58-62, What the Schools Can Do to Aid the Peace 

Movement. 

The Place of the Conception of Progress in the Study 
AND Teaching of History 

BLAIR, F. G. — Fourth Year Book of the National Herbart 

Society, pp. 44-56, The Social Function of History. 
HARRISON, FREDERIC— T/i^ Meaning of History. Ch. i, 

The Use of History. 
ROBINSON, J. K.—The New History, ch. viii ; cf . ch. i. 
ROBINSON, J. U.— Fifth Year Book of the National Herbart 

Society, pp. 42-68 (a more complete presentation of the 

same subject). 

The Teaching of Literature 

BATES, ARLO — Talks on Teaching Literature. A remark- 
able series of lectures on the teaching of literature in 
general. 

CABOT, ELLA LYUAN— Children's Reading as a Help in 
Training Character, Religious Education, vol. 11, pp. 207- 
220. 

CHUBB, PERCIVAL— T/i^ Teaching of English, chaps, xiii 
and XX. 

GRIGGS, E. H. — Moral Education, ch. xxii. 

HUDSON, W. H. — Introduction to the Study of Literature-^ 
On literature as an imitative art. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 433 

CHAPTERS XVI TO XVIII 

Systematic Moral Instruction 

principles 

ABLER, FELIX— The Moral Instruction of Children. New 
York (1892). D. Appleton & Co. Contains also material 
for use in class, especially for elementary-school pupils. 
This is the great pioneer book on the subject. 

BRYANT, SOPHIE— The Teaching of Morality in the 
Family and in the School. New York (1897). Macmillan 
Co. Based on long experience in an English school for 
girls. 

DAVIS, JESSE — Vocational and Moral Guidance. Boston 
(1914). Ginn & Co. Describes a method of instruction 
primarily in vocational and civic morality, which is inti- 
mately related with the system of vocational guidance in 
operation in the Central High School of Grand Rapids, 
Michigan. Bibliographies. 

FOERSTER, F. W.—Jugendlehre. Third Edition. Berlin 
(1909). Reimer. For combined comprehensiveness and 
quality of treatment, perhaps the best book ever written 
on the subject. 

GOULD, F. J. — Moral Instruction, Its Theory and Practice. 
New York (1913). Longmans, Green & Co. Deals pri- 
marily with the work of the grades, though it states many 
important principles of universal applicability; contains 
stenographic reports of ten lessons. Indispensable for 
those using the story method; very valuable for all 
others. 

JACKSON, E. P.— Character Building. Boston (1891). 
Houghton Mifflin Co. Apart from a serious mistake in 
ch. iv, a useful and always an interesting book. 

ANDREWS, FANNIE FERN— The Peace Movement and 
the Public Schools. National Education Association, 1911, 
pp. 247-251. 

CABOT, ELLA L. — Moral Training in the Schools. Proceed- 
ings of the National Education Association for 1909, pp. 
239-245. An Experiment in the Teaching of Ethics. Edu- 



434 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

catlonal Review, vol. 34, pp. 433-447. Two Experiments in 
Social Training. Religious Education, vol. 8, pp. 191-200. 

COE, G. A. — Virtue and the Virtues. National Education As- 
sociation, igil, pp. 419-425. Reprinted in Religious Edu- 
cation, vol. 6, pp. 485-492. 

DAVIS, 'i^SS'E—Western Journal of Education, Nov., 1911, 
pp. 413-416; English Journal, Oct., 1912, pp. 457-465; Re- 
ligious Education, vol. 7, pp. 110-118 and 645-653 (these 
two should be read together). Articles describing the 
method of moral instruction employed in the Central High 
School, Grand Rapids, Michigan. 

DEWEY, ]OYm— Teaching Ethics in the High School. Edu- 
cational Review, vol. 6, pp. 313-321. 

FAUNCE, W. H. v.— -Moral Education in the Public Schools. 
Educational Review, vol. 25, pp. 325-340. 

GOULD, F. J. — An Ethical Teacher's American Tour. Inter- 
national Journal of Ethics, vol. 24, pp. 334-341. 

MACKENZIE, J. S.—The Problem of Moral Instruction. In- 
ternational Journal of Ethics, vol. 18, pp. 273-291. Moral 
Education: The Task of the Teacher. International 
Journal of Ethics, vol. 19, pp. 399-418. 

MEIKLEJOHN, ALEXANDER— Co//^^^ Education and the 
Moral Ideal. Education, vol. 28, pp. 553-567. Applies 
equally to the schools. 

NEUMANN, HENRY— S'om^ Misconceptions of Moral Edu- 
cation, International Journal of Ethics, vol. 22, pp. 335- 
347. 

OLIPHANT, JAMES — Moral Instruction. International 
Journal of Ethics, vol. 16, pp. 401-418. 

PERRY, R. B.—The Teaching of Ideals. School Review, vol. 
22, pp. 334-338. 

RUGH, C. E. — The Moral Instruction of th^ Child. National 
Education Association, iQii, pp. 497-503. 

TUFTS, J. H. — Is There a Place for Moral Instruction? 
School Review, vol. 16, pp. 475-477. Two Standpoi?its for 
Moral Instruction. School Review, vol. 16, pp. 551-553. 
The Teaching of Ideals. School Review, vol. 22, pp. 326- 
2)ZZ. How Far Is Formal Systematic Instruction De- 
sirable in Moral Training in the Schools? Religious Edu-^ 
cation, vol. 3, pp. 121-125. The School and Modern Life. 
Religious Education, vol. 4, pp. 343-348. The Study of 
Public Morality in High Schools, Religious Education, 
vol. 7, pp. 631-636. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 435 



TexT'Books and Syllabi for the Elementary School 

ADLER, FELIX— The Moral Instruction of Children. D. Ap- 
pleton & Co. 

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR INTERNATIONAL 
CONCILIATION, Publications, Substation 84, New York 
City. 

AMERICAN ETHICAL UNION (1415 Locust St., Phila- 
delphia) — A Syllabus of Lessons in Moral Instruction for 
Elementary and Secondary Schools. The Course of 
Study in Use in the Ethical Culture School, New York 
City. 

AMERICAN HUMANE ASSOCIATION, Publications, 287 
State St., Albany, N. Y. 

BIBLIOGRAPHIES OF THE CARNEGIE LIBRARY, 
Pittsburgh, for stories and biographies. 

BRYANT, SARA C.—How to Tell Stories to Children. 
Houghton Mifflin Co. 

CABOT, ELLA laYULKH— Ethics for Children. Houghton 
Mifflin Co. 

CABOT, ELLA LYMAN, ANDREWS, FANNIE FERN 
AND OTHERS — A Course in Citizenship. Houghton 
Mifflin Co. 

CHESTERTON, ALICE M.—The Garden of Childhood. 
Nelson, Paternoster Row, London. 
The Pansy Patch. Nelson. 
The Magic Garden. Nelson. 

DEWEY, JULIA M. — Lessons on Manners. Hinds, Noble & 
Eldredge. 

DOLE, C. F.—The Young Citizen. D. C. Heath & Co. 

DUNN, ARTHUR W.—The Community and the Citizen. 
D. C. Heath & Co. 

FOERSTER, F. W.—The Art of Living. English Transla- 
tion, Dutton. This is a translation of a part of Jugend- 
lehre, referred to above. Unfortunately what seem to be 
the most important portions of the book do not, for the 
most part, appear in the translation. 

GOULD, F. J.— The Children's Book of Moral Lessons. Four 
series. American Ethical Union, 1415 Locust St., Phila- 
delphia. 

Stories for Moral Instruction (supplementary'' to the 
above series). American Ethical Union. 
Life and Manners. Macmillan Co. 
Conduct Stories. Macmillan Co. 
Stories for Young Hearts and Minds. Macmillan Co. 



436 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Youth*s Noble Path. A volume of moral instruction, 

mainly based on Eastern tradition, poetry, and history. 

Longmans, Green & Co. 

Victors of Peace. Harper & Bros. 

Heroes of Peace. Harper & Bros. 

Moral Instruction, Its Theory and Practice. Longmans, 

Green & Co. 

The Children's Plutarch — Preface by W. D. Howells. 

Harper & Bros. 
GULICK, LUTHER — Hygiene Series. Five volumes, Ginn 

& Co. 
McMURRY, CBAICLES—Special Methods in Primary Read- 
ing and Oral Work with Stories. Macmillan Co. 
PEACE SOCIETY'S PAMPHLETS, 31 Beacon St., Boston. 
SALISBURY AND BECKWITH— /wrf^^r to Short Stories. 

Chicago (1907). Row, Peterson & Co. 
SNEATH AND HODGES— Mora/ Training in the School 

and Home. Macmillan Co. 
THE GOLDEN RULE SERIES— GoW^w Ladder, for Grade 

III; Golden Path, IV; Golden Door, V; Golden Key, VI; 

Golden Word, VII; Golden Deed, VIII. Macmillan Co. 
TAYLOR, C. K. — Character Development, Philadelphia. 

John C. Winston Co. 
WHITE, JAMES T^.'R'RY— Character Lessons in American 

Biography. Character Development League, 70 Fifth Ave., 

New York City. 

Text-books and Syllabi for the High School 

ADLER, FELIX — The Moral Instruction of Children. New 

York (1892). D. Appleton & Co. (See above.) 
AMERICAN ETHICAL UNION— ^ Syllabus of Lessons in 

Moral Instruction for Elementary and Secondary Schools. 
CABOT, ELLA LYMAlSi— Everyday Ethics. New York 

(1906). Henry Holt & Co. 
DAVIS, JESSE — (as above, especially Western Journal of 

Education) . 
EVERETT, C. C— Ethics for Young People. Boston (1892). 

Ginn & Co. 
HYDE, W. DeWITT— Practical Ethics. New York (1892). 

Henry Holt & Co. 
JENKS, J. W. — Life Questions of High School Boys. New 

York Y. M. C. A. Press (1908). 
JOHNSON, F. W.— Problems of Boyhood. University of 

Chicago Press (1914). 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 437 



Sex Instruction ' 

BALLIET, THOMAS lH.—Sex Morality and Sex^ Hygiene as 
the Aim of Sex Education. National Education Associa- 
tion, J915, pp. 148-153. Contains some practical sugges- 
tions for the schools. 

BIGELOW, MAURICE A.—Sex Education. New York 
(1916). Macmillan Co. The most complete and authori- 
tative work on the subject. Indispensable for those really 
interested in these problems. Contains bibliography. 

BIGELOW, MAURICE A.— Sex Instruction as a Phase of 
Social Education. Religious Education, vol. 8, pp. 11-22. 

FOERSTER, F. W.— Marriage and the Sex Problem. New 
York (1912). F. A. Stokes Co. By the author of 
Jugendlehre. 

FOSTER, WILLIAM T. (editor)— TA^ Social Emergency. 
Boston (1914).' Houghton Mifflin Co. A series of es- 
says by different authors, about half of which deal more 
or less directly with sex instruction in the schools. Ch. 
xii, by the editor, also to be found, verbatim, in School 
Review, vol. 22, pp. 256-261, contains a number of valuable 
practical suggestions. 

HENRY, ALICE— The Special Moral Training of Girls. In- 
ternational Journal of Ethics, vol. 14, p. 1. A plea for sex 
instruction for girls. 

MORROW, PRINCE A.— Prophylaxis of Social Diseases. 
American Journal of Sociology, vol. 13, pp. 20-30, 

PARKINSON, W. D. — Sex and Education. Educational Re- 
view, vol. 41, pp. 42-59. The aims, spirit, and ideals of sex 
instruction. 

PUTNAM, HELEN C— Education for Parenthood. Re- 
ligious Education, vol. 6, pp. 159-166. 

SEDGWICK, H. D. — A Gap in Education. Atlantic Monthly, 
vol. 87, pp. 68-72. Effective plea for sex instruction, espe- 
cially in the home. 

TAYLOR, C. K.— Moral Training of Private School Boys. 
Education, vol. 31, pp. 541-547. A study of the situation 
in a number of private schools for boys. 

WILE, IRA S.—Sex Education. New York (1912). Duffield. 
An excellent manual for the use of teachers. 

WILLSON, ROBERT ^.—The Social Evil in University Life. 
Philadelphia (1905). The Vir Publishing Co. Facts and 
suggestions for the teacher. 



438 BIBLIOGRAPHY 



Essays, Chiefly Contemporary, on the Nature of 
Success in Life 

(The following list is intended to suggest material for the 
work outlined in section 8 of the high-school program. If I 
have not included in it the names of the great classical essay* 
ists on life, it is because I assume them to be known to the 
reader^ not because I suppose them unsuited to our pupils.) 

ELIOT, CHARLES W.—The Durable Satisfactions of Life. 
New York (1910). Thomas Y. Crowell Co. The Happy 
Life. New York (1896). Thomas Y. Crowell Co. Great 
Riches. New York (1906). Thomas Y. Crowell Co. 

FIELD, W. T.—What Is Successf Boston (1910). Pilgrim 
Press. 

HAMERTON, PHILIP GILBERT— Hmwow Intercourse. 
Boston (1885). Roberts Bros. The Intellectual Life. 
Boston (1873). Little, Brown & Co. The Quest of Hap- 
piness. Boston (1897). Little, Brown & Co. 

HELPS, SIR ARTHUR— Ej^yay^ Written in the Intervals of 
Business. London (1889). Macmillan Co. 

HILTYy KARL-— Happiness. Translated from the German 
by F. G. Peabody. New York (1903). Macmillan Co. 

HYDE, WILLIAM DeWITT— The Cardinal Virtues. Nev: 
York (1902). Thomas Y. Crowell Co. The College Man 
and the College Woman. Boston (1906). Houghton 
Mifflin Co. The Quest of the Best. New York (1913). 
Thomas Y. Crowell Co. 

JAMES, WILLIAM— Habit. New York (1914). Henry 
Holt & Co. Reprinted from the Principles^ of Psychology. 
On Some of Life's Ideals. New York (1912). Henry Hol^ 
& Co. 

KING, H. C. — How to Make a Rational Fight for Character, 
in Personal and Ideal Elements in Education. New York 
(1904). Macmillan Co. 

LECKY, W. E. H.—The Map of Life. New York (1899). 
Longmans, Green & Co. 

MacCUNN, JOHN— The Making of Character. New York 
(1913). Macmillan Co. 

PAYOT, JULES— The Education of the Will. Translated 
from the thirtieth French edition by S. E. Jelliffe. New 
York (1909). Funk & Wagnalls Co. The majority of 
readers will find it profitable to omit Books I and 11. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 439 

ROOSEVELT, THEODORE^-T/i^ Strenuous Life. N^w 

York (1901). Century Co. 
STEVENSON, ROBERT LOVlS—Virginibus Puertsque. 

The Lantern Bearers. Lay Morals. 
WAGNER, CHARLES— Fow^/j. Translated from the French 

by E. Redwood, New York (1893). Dodd, Mead & Co. 

MORAL EDUCATION IN THE SCHOOL 

WoRjcs AND Articles Dealing with More Than One Phase 

OF THE Subject 

COE, G. A. — Education in Religion and Morals. New York 

(1904). Revell&Co. 
DEWEY, JOHN — Moral Principles in Education, Boston 

(1909). Houghton Mifflin Co. 
GRIGGS, E. H. — Moral Education. Sixth Edition. New York 

(1913). Huebsch. 
HOLMES, ARTHUR— The Principles of Character Making. 

Philadelphia (1913). J. B. Lippincott Co. 
MacCUNN, JOUN— The Making of Character. New York 

(1913). Macmillan Co. 
MARK, H. J. — Moral Education in the American Schools. 

Board of Education (Great Britain) Special Reports, vol. 

X, pp. 17-254. London (1902). An extremely valuable 

description and appreciation by an Englishman of the 

work in moral education in American schools at the end 

of the last century. 
O'SHEA, M. V. — Social Development and Education. Part 

IL Boston (1909). Houghton Mifflin Co. 
Papers on Moral Education Communicated to the First Moral 

Education Congress (1908). London, David Nutt. 
Memoires sur I'education morale presentes au deuxieme con-- 

gres international d'education morale (1912). The Hague, 

Martinus Nijhoff. 
Papers Contributed by American Writers to the Second Inter- 

national Moral Education Congress. American Ethical 

Union, 1415 Locust St., Philadelphia. 
REEDER, R. R. — How Two Hundred Children Live and 

Learn. New York (1910). Charities Publication Com- 
mittee. 
RUGH, C. E., and others — Moral Training in the Public 

Schools. The California Prize Essays. Boston (1907). 

Ginn & Co. 



440 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

SADLER, M. E. (editor) — Moral Instruction and Training in 
Schools. Two volumes. New York (1908). Longmans, 
Green & Co. Report of an International Inquiry, by a 
committee, into the actual situation, with discussion. Vol. 
I, the United Kingdom; Vol. II, Foreign and Colonial. 
Almost indispensable, 

SPILLER, GUSTAV — Moral Education in Eighteen Coun- 
tries. London (1909). Watts. 

ADLER, FELIX— TA^ Distinctive Aims of the Ethical Cul- 
ture School. Four addresses delivered before the teach- 
ers of these schools. To be obtained by application to the 
New York School, 2 West Sixty-fourth St. 

BARNES, C. W. — Moral Training through the Agency of 
the Public Schools. National Education Association, 1907, 
pp. 372>-2>7S ; ibid., 1909, pp. 129-140. 

COE, G. A. — Moral and Religious Education from the Psy- 
chological Point of View. Religious Education, vol. 3, 
pp. 165-179. Moral Education in the Sunday School (ap- 
plies also to the day school). Religious Education, vol. 8, 
pp. 313-319. 

HALL, G. STANLEY— Youth. New York (1906). D. Ap- 
pleton & Co. Ch. xii. Moral and Religious Training. 

HALLECK, R. F.—What Kind of Education Is Best Suited 
to Boys? School Review, vol. 14, pp. 512-521. 

McKENNY, CHARLES— 7A^ Elementary School and Edu- 
cation for Social Duty. Religious Education, vol. 4, pp. 
353-357. 

PARKER, FRANCIS W.— Talks on Pedagogics. New York 
(1894). E. L. Kellogg & Co. Ch. xiv. 

REEDER, R. R. — Moral Training an Essential Factor in Ele- 
mentary School Work. National Education Association, 
1908, pp. 562-567. 

Religious Education— Vols. l-U (A-pn\,1906rFeh., 1917). The 
files of this journal contain the most complete collection 
of articles dealing with the history of moral education in 
the United States in this century that is anywhere to be 
found. 

SADLER, MICHAEL — The International Congress of Moral 
Education. International Journal of Ethics, vol. 19, pp. 
158-172. 

SEARCH, P. W. — The Ethics of the Public Schools. Educa- 
tional Review, vol. 11, pp. 134-145. 

SISSON, E. O. — The High School Cure of Souls. Educa- 
tional Review, vol. 35, p. 359. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 441 

STREET, J. R. — A Study in Moral Education. Pedagogical 
Seminary, vol. 5, pp. 5-40. 

SWIFT, E. J.— Youth and the Race. New York (1912). 
Charles Scribner's Sons. Ch. vi, Fallacies in Moral 
Training. 

TAYLOR, C. K. — Moral Education, the History of an Ex- 
periment. Education, vol. 35, pp. 220-230. An account of 
the work now being conducted in the Philadelphia elemen- 
tary schools. 

Bibliographies of Moral Education 

COPE, H. F.— Religious Education, vol. 5, pp. 718-732 (Feb., 
1911). 

GRIGGS, E. U.— Moral Education. New York. Huebsch. 
Sixth Edition, 1913. In all editions the bibliography ex- 
tends only through 1903 ; about 400 titles ; annotated. 

Proceedings of National Education Association — Index to 
vols. 1857-1906; in volume for 1906, pp. 715-716. 

SADLER, MICHAEL — Moral Instruction and Training in 
Schools. Two volumes. New York (1908). Longmans, 
Green & Co. Brief lists at the end of each volume; oc- 
casional annotations. 

SPILLER, GUSTAV — Moral Education in Eighteen Coun- 
tries. London (1909). Watts. About 750 titles; anno- 
tated. 

CHAPTER XIX 
Moral Education in the Home 

ABBOTT, ERNEST H.— On the Training of Parents. Bos- 
ton (1908). Houghton Mifflin Co. Reprinted from the 
Outlook, vols. 87 and 88. 

ADLER, FELIX — The Punishment of Children. Ethical Ad- 
dresses, vol. 13, No. 3, pp. 65-100 (American Ethical 
Union, 1415 Locust St., Philadelphia.) 

ANONYMOUS— T/i^ Autobiography of a Child with Two 
Parents. Everybody's Magazine, vol. 16, pp. 116-120. 

BRUCE, H. ADDINGTON— r/i^ Home Training of Chil- 
dren. Outlook, vol. 103, pp. 724-729. 

CABOT, ELLA LYMAN— T/^^ Conquest of Children's 
Fciults. Religious Education, vol. 10, pp. 239-252. 



442 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

FISHER, DOROTHY C ANFIELD— Mothers and Children. 
New York (1914). Henry Holt & Co. 

FISHER, DOROTHY CANFIELD— ^'W/.i^^/ianc^. Indian- 
apolis (1916). Bobbs-Merrill Co. 

FORBVSB.,W.B.— The Boy Problem. Boston (1907). Pil- 
grim Press. 

FORBUSH, W. B.—The Government of Young Children. 
American Institute of Child Life. 

HALL, G. STANLEY— Fow^/j. New York (1906). D. Apple- 
ton & Co. 

LEUPP, FRANCIS E.—The Crooked Stick. Atlantic 
Monthly, vol. 108, pp. 126-134. 

LEUPP, FRANCIS E. — Abusing the Instrument. Atlantic 
Monthly, vol. 112, pp. 227-229. 

McCRACKEN, ELIZABETH— ^w^nVow Children. Outlook, 
vol. 100, pp. 025-936. 

PAULSEN, FRIEDRICH— OM and New Notions about 
Education. Educational Review, vol. 35, p. 476. 

PEABODY, ENDICOTT— Tt-amm^r and Responsibility of 
Parents. School Review, vol. 16, pp. 281-295. 

ROGERS, ANNA A.— Why American Mothers Fail. Atlantic 
Monthly, vol. 101, pp. 289-297. 



Index 



INDEX 

Admiration: as a moral force, 9 ff., 179 ff. ; does not neces- 
sarily produce principles, 17; admiration for others in- 
creases spirit of service, 172; application to history 
teaching, 202 ff. 

Advice : its value and the conditions of its effectiveness, 24 ; 
limitations upon effectiveness, 29. 

Adviser system, 27. 

Allies of character, strengthening by moral training, 144. 

Altruism, see Service. 

Andrews, Fannie Fern, 283. 

Apperception, use of the principle in moral instruction, 189, 
190, 195, 266. 

Aristotle, 342. 

Arnold, Thomas, 7, ZZ, 56, 109, 151, 198. 

Assembly: at the Parker School, 102; at the University of 
Chicago High School, 116, 120. 

Athletic director, influence of, 22, 110. See also Teacher. 

Athletics: high-school, 110; at the University of Chicago 
High School, 113 ff.; interscholastic, 114, 116; distribu- 
tion of emblems to athletes, 116; tone raised by moral 
instruction, 338. 

Authority: in morals, its limits, 194; inadmissible in moral 
instruction, 268. 

Baldwin, W. H., Jr., 174, 204. 

Barnes, C. W., 339. 

Bigelow, M. A., 285, 299. 

Biography : value of, 173, 202 ff., 238 ; use in science teaching, 
201 ; specific aims of a course in, 239 ff., 248 ; how to 
introduce it to the class, 242 ; methods, 243 ff. ; place in 
the curriculum, 248 f . ; program of a course in, 249 ff.; 
course in social progress, 252 f . ; limitations, 257 f . 

Blame, see Praise. 

Botany, mutual aid in study of, 76-78. 

Bradford, Gamaliel, Jr., 248. 

Burns, C. D., 208 n. 

Cabot, Ella Lyman, 283. 
Carlyle, 51, 336. 

445 



446 INDEX 

Character of historical leaders as a force in moral education : 
202 ff. ; in biography, 238 ff.. 251 ff. 

Character of teacher as a force in moral education, 9 ff., 17, 
31, 71, 109, 123, 146 ff. ; limitations of influence, 12-17, 33. 

Character: perfection or excellence of, as one aspect of mor- 
ality, 166; relation to service, 167; means of awakening 
desire for, 179. 

Charitable work, 124-126, 135. 

Charity Organization Society, cooperation of pupils with, 124, 
135. 

Chicago, High School of University of, 2>7, 111 ff. 

Church as a place for moral education : 2 ff. ; limitations, 4. 

Civic activities: 126; at Two Rivers, Wisconsin, 127 ff. ; value 
relative to other forms of moral training, 149. 

Civic Club of Two Rivers, Wisconsin, 129, 135. 

Civics : ^ principal aims, 230 ; methods, 79, 232 ; results, 233 ; 
bibliography, 234; limitations, 257; a course for the 
eighth grade, 393 ff. 

Classes, importance of small, 21, 27. 

Class work, see Mutual Aid. 

Club house: built by school children, 90; at University of 
Chicago High School, 111 n. 

Clubs: school, at the University of Chicago High School, 
112 ff. ; Leadership Clubs, 35. 

Collier, Robert, 160. 

Community Night, 133. 

Conduct of life, study of, see Moral Instruction (Systematic). 

Conformity in outer conduct: distinguished from moral loy- 
alty, 40 ff. ; produced by external discipline, 42, 139 ; its 
insufficiency, 45 ff. 

Cooperative study: 75-88; in civics, 232. 

Council, school, 34, 65, 118. 

Cruelty, protection of fellow pupils against, 94. 

Culture epoch hypothesis, 179. 

Debating contests, 117. 

Dewey, 345. 

Differences underlying apparent identities, discovery of, I88. 

Discipline : can not directly create character, 42, 45-48 ; how it 
does operate to strengthen character, 48-55 ; its place 
among the agencies for moral training, 148; in the 
home, 351 ff. 

Domestic science at the Parker School, 95. For other head- 
ings, see Manual Training. 

Dramatic work : training in service through, 93 ; at the Parker 
School, 99; at the University of Chicago High School, 
117. 



INDEX 447 



Drudgery, 50, 53. 

Dunn, A. W., 230, 234. 

Duties:- conflict of, should not be emphasized, 264, 270, 273; 
classification of, 279 ff. ; classification used for elemen- 
tary school program, 281 f. ; for high-school program, 
288. 

Ecce Homo quoted, 47. 

Effects of conduct: training to discover, 168; through history, 
206, 217, 237; through systematic moral instruction, 262 
ff. ; problem of effects enters all departments of moral 
instruction, 273; effects upon pupils of moral instruc- 
tion, 335. 

Egoism : as a legitimate element In life, 182 ff. ; possibility of 
a conflict with altruism, 184, 208. See "Moral Imbecile." 

EHot, George, 51, 225, 229, 329. 

Emerson, 204, 217, 219, 294, 2>Z6. 

Enemies of character destroyed by moral training, 144. 

English, cooperative study of, 78, 93. 

English literature, see Literature, 

English public school : methods of moral training in, 7, 56, 
110, 114; results obtained, 151-153; moral instruction in, 
153. 

Ethical Culture School of New York, 283. 

Ethics, not identical with moral instruction, 275. 

Evil, advisability of portraying, 181. 

Example in the home, 343 ff. 

Exhortation : its influence on formation of character, 24, 25, 
29, 336; not part of moral instruction, 192. 

Experience, moral value of, 49, 107, 170. 

Extra-curricular activities : their organization as a means of 
moral training, 27, 108-123; value in comparison with 
other forms of moral training, 149. 

Faults of good men, how to deal with, 241. 

Fenelon, 8. 

Fichte, ZZ6. 

Franklin's Autobiography, 242, 245, 247, 249. 

Fraternity problem in the high school, 122. 

French system of moral instruction : contrasted with that of 

the author, 276; workings of legal compulsion in, 332. 
Friendship between pupil and teacher, conditions of, 25-28. 

Gang: 107; replaced with high-school club, 109. 
Generalization : power of, developed through history, 207- 

209; through Hterature, 222-224; in biography, 240; not 

for elementary school, 273. 



448 INDEX 

Gould, F. J., 281, 320, 324 n. 

Grand Rapids (Michigan) Central High School, 35, 123. 
Gratitude, awakening to the claims of, 175, 213-215, 233, 237, 
255. 

Growth of children's ideals ; 190 ; consequences for moral in- 
struction, 191. 

Habits of outer conformity insufficient, 45 ff . ; what habits 
moral education seeks to produce, 47. 

Hamilton, W. J., 127. 

Hand work, see Manual Training. 

History : changes in teaching necessary, 55 ; cooperative study 
of, 78 ; moral instruction through, 202 ff. ; compared 
with literature, 222 ff., 236 ff. ; good teaching of, 216; 
selection of subject-matter, 217; place in a system of 
moral instruction, 228 ff. ; limitations, 257. 

Home : as a place for moral education, 3 ; limitations, 4 ; 
moral training in old-fashioned, 174 ; in the present-day, 
106, 357. 

Home life, necessity of knowing, 28. 

Honesty in school life, 338. 

Honor societies. University of Chicago High School, 119. 

Honor system, 67 ff. 

Hopefulness : importance of, 171 ; developing it through his- 
tory, 215. 

Httmboldt, 3, 

^- 

Idelltitils^^ twining to discover, 186, 267, 268, 270. 

Imaginatii6h : value of, 169 ; how to develop, 170, 197 ; through 
history, 212, 217 ; through literature, 226. 

Imitation, 10, 205. 

Incidental method of moral instruction, its insufficiency, 258 ff. 

Indianapolis, 91. 

Instruction as the imparting of information, criticized, 193, 
194. 

Interest : in school work, 53 ; developed through activities un- 
dertaken from other motives, 64, 88, 104, 126, 141 ; ap- 
plication to teachers of moral instruction, 331 ; interest 
and thoughtfulness, 143; pupils' interest in moral in- 
struction, 333, 

James, 1, 53. 
Jenks, 35. 
Johnson, 111, 337, 



INDEX 449 

Language teaching, 55, 

Leadership Clubs, 35, 123, 

Leadership, training for, 34, 64, 118. 

Legal requirement of moral instruction, 328-332. 

Lincoln, 240, 246, 249. 

Literature : how to develop appreciation of, 162 ; as a means 
of moral instruction, 219-230; as representing the real 
world, 219 ff. ; compared with history as a means of 
moral instruction, 222 ff., 236 fif. ; qualifications for 
teaching, 227; place in moral instruction, 228; limita- 
tions of, 257 f. ; moral instruction trains in the appre- 
ciation of, 328. 

Locke, 47. 

Loyalty, moral, distinguished from outer conformity, 40-42, 
139. 

Loyalty to leaders, 64. 

Mann, Horace, 2. 

Manual training: opportunity for personal contact with 
teacher, 27; for mutual aid, 16', for service of school, 
89 ff., 104; at the Parker School, 96; some effects upon 
character, 142-145. 

Mathematics, 55, 201. 

McCormack, T. J., 259. 

McDougall, 10 n. 

Meredith, 223. 

Missouri, University of. Elementary School, 92. 

Moral education in the home, principles same as in school, 342. 

Moral education in school : importance, 1 ; place in the school, 
2; source of class-room efficiency, 6; success of, 7; will 
raise status of teacher, 22; most needed for the good, 
30; seeks to develop ideals and the habit of obeying 
them, 47 ; fundamental aims, 156, 261 ; chief agencies of, 
see Preface. 

Moral illiteracy, 159. 

"Moral imbecile," 177. 

Moral instruction in the home, 355. 

Moral instruction in the school: supplies channels for per- 
sonal influence, 17; necessity of, 151 If., 157-164; atti- 
tude of English public-school teachers, 153; defined, 
155 ; relation to moral training, 155 ; aims, 156-164, 261 ; 
these can not be kept separate, 273; which is the most 
important, 164, 274; how to develop spirit of service, 
168-176; the desire for perfection of character, 179 ff. ; 
methods, 189, 192, 197; scope. 200; starts from pupils' 
desires, see Apperception. 



450 INDEX 

Moral instruction (systematic): necessity of, 257 f. ; objec- 
tions to, 260, 423 ; fundamental aims, 261 ; the knowl- 
edge of what is right, 261-271, 272; desire to do right, 
162-163, 168-176, 179-181 ; the will to do right, 163, 271 ; 
not identical with ethics, 275 ; content, 279 ; program for 
elementary school, 281 ff., 361 ff. ; principles on which 
based, 281 ff. ; program for high school, 288 ff. ; meth- 
ods in high school, 318 f . ; in elementary school, 319 ff . ; 
place in the curriculum, 324, 326 f . ; elective or required, 
326; as an interpreter of literature, 328; legal require- 
ment, 328-332; qualifications of teacher, 329; pupils' in- 
terest in, 333 ff. ; effects, 335 ff. ; supplemented with 
training, 340. 

Moral nature of the child, 177-179, 180 f., 189, 190 f. 

Moral thoughtfulness : training in as the function of moral 
instruction, 197; defined, 198 ff. 

Moral training in the home, 343-355. 

Moral training in the school: supplies channels of influence, 
17; defined, 40; forms, 48, 56, 75; methods, 141-146; 
importance of distinguishing between them, 146; many 
effects attributed to, due to contagion of character, 146; 
relative effectiveness of the different methods, 148; in- 
sufficiency of, 151 ff. ; relation to moral instruction, 155, 
340; fundamental aims, 156. 

Moral welfare, care for fellow pupils', 94. 

Morality: defined, 41, 165 ff., 266; not alien from human na- 
ture, 188 ; involves strength, 180, 240. See Right. 

Moralizing, 209. 

Morning exercises, see Assembly. 

Mueller, Johannes, 51. 

Municipal workers, pupils as, 126. 

Museum, school, 97. 

Music, 90-101. 

Mutual aid in class work : the underlying principle, 75 ; under 
direction, 76-84; unsupervised, 84-87; the fundamental 
limitation of the entire method, 87; value relative to 
other forms of moral training, 149. 

Neumann, H., 296 n. 

Obedience : in the home, 351 ; reasoned, 352 f . 

Objections to systematic moral instruction, 260. 

Opportunity for service, moral training through providing, 

141. 
Organic nature of society, 208, 233, 254, 291. 



INDEX 451 

Parental treatment of children: justice in punishment, 345; 
in appreciation, 346; companionship, 347-349; effects of 
companionship, 349-351; discipHne, 351 ff.; punishment, 
353 ff. 

Parker School : moral training at, 95-105 : Christmas gifts at, 
125. 

Parties at the University of Chicago High School, 121. 

Patriotism : national, 213 ; racial, 214 ; through civics, 233 f. 

Penn, William, High School (Philadelphia), 125. 

Pericles, 234 n* 

Personality: necessity for well-rounded, 10; example of its 
influence, 68. See Character. 

Physical education, reasons for in the schools, 2, 6. 

Plutarch, 9, 241. 

Policemen, high-school boys as, 126. 

Porter, D. R., 334. 

Potentialities latent in human nature, l74, 225. 

Praise, limitations of its influence, 25, 29, 31. 

Principles (moral), not necessarily produced by admira- 
tion, 17. 

Principles (educational), relation to practise, 342. 

Printing work at the Parker School, 96. 

Progress (social) : belief in, 215, 255; ignored by literature, 
237; a feature of biography, 238; a course in contem- 
porary progress, 251 ff. ; results, 254 ff. 

Publications : of the Parker School, 97, 99 ; of the University 
of Chicago High School, 118. 

Punishment : effects upon character, 48 ff. ; under self-govern- 
ment, 72; in the home, 345, 353 ff. 

Pupil government : 56-65 ; relation to self-government, 65, 73 ; 
its value relative to other forms of moral training, 148. 
See Council. 

Pupil teacher, 77, 80, 81* 

Reading, moral training through, 92. 

Realization, power of, see Imagination. 

Required study, moral instruction as, 325 f. 

Revenge, belief in, 191, 194, 297 n. 

Right conduct: factors of, 156; motives of, 165-168. See 
Morality. 

Right: knowledge of what is right, a fundamental aim of 
moral instruction, 157 ff., 274; how to obtain it, 195; 
analysis of the situation, 261 ff.; determination of the 
standard, 265 ff. (cf. 186-188) ; summary pf what it in- 
volves, 270, 



452 INDEX 

Right: love of (desire to do), how to strengthen through 
moral instruction, 162, 168-186; the most important end 
of moral education, 164, 274. See Character and Moral 
Training. 

Right: the will to do, not entirely identical with desire, 157; 
how to strengthen through moral instruction, li63, 271. 
See Character and Moral Training. 

Rivalry, 409. 

Ross, 170. 

Rules (general), breaking, see Duties, Conflict of. 

Ruskin, 51. 

School: as an instrument of moral education, 2, 6; advan- 
tages over home and church, 3 ff., 74 ; tone of, how im- 
proved through influence of teacher, 33 ff. ; through de- 
priving bad of prestige, 36 ff. ; through elimination of 
the bad, 38; school discipline can not directly create 
character, 42 ; school virtues are insufficient as an equip- 
ment for life, 43; drudgery and enthusiasm in school 
work, 50 ff. ; hard work in school, 54 ; pupil govern- 
ment in, 56 ff. ; self-government in, 65 ff. ; mutual aid in 
school work, 74 ff. ; service of school, 89 ff. ; value of 
these methods relative to other forms of moral train- 
ing, 149; school must take charge of life out of class 
room, 108; duties of school life, program for high 
school, 294 ff. 

School council, see Council. 

Science, 55, 201, 206. 

Scientific spirit in history teaching, 217. 

Self-control: help supplied through moral instruction, 163, 
229, 271 ; discussion of in high-school program, 289 ; in 
elementary-school program (self-government), 361, etc. 
See Character and Moral Training. 

Self-government : in school vs. pupil government, 65, 69 ; how 
to deal with offenses under, 72. 

Service: desire for, methods of developing, 75, 168-176, 185, 
206-216, 222-226, 230 ff.. 236 f., 238, 251 ff., 256; as an 
element in morality, 165 ; relation to perfection of char- 
acter, 167; present in all normal adults, 176, 188; in 
children, 177. 

Sex instruction : in the elementary school, 284 ff. ; In the high 
school, 297. 

Shakespeare, as a realist and Idealist, 221. 

Skepticism regarding the existence of virtue, 11, 204, 236, 238. 

Smoking, 94, 338. 

Standards of conduct, how to determine, 265-270. 



INDEX 453 



Stevenson, 170. 

Story-telling : training in service through, 94 ; as a method of 
moral instruction, 320. 

Success: laws of taught through biography, 240; in systematic 
course for high school, 311 ff. 

Sully, 354. 

Sympathy : relation to experience, 107, 170 ; relation to imagi- 
nation, 169-171, 212. 

Tattling, 62, 72. 

Teacher : importance of the personality of, 9 ff., 25, 31 ; limi- 
tations upon influence of, 12 ff., 29 ff. ; qualifications of 
a good teacher, 18 ff. ; how to supply the demand, 20 ff. ; 
as a friend, 24 ff., 34-36, 71 ; example of personal influ- 
ence, 68; taking part in extra-curricular activities, 109 
ff., 123; qualifications for moral instruction, 329. 

Thayer, J. A., 159. 

Thoughtfulness for others, training in, 142 ff., 149. 

Thoughtlessness, wrong-doing through, 159. 

Tuskegee, 92. 

Two Rivers (Wisconsin), 127 ff. 

Tyndall, 336. 

Washington, Booker T., 247, 249. 
Wisconsin, University of, 36. 
Women's Clubs in Two Rivers, 136. 
Woodberry, 328. 
Wordsworth, 51, 181. 
Work, value of habits of vigorous, 54. 

Writing: training the spirit of service through the teaching 
of, 93 ; as employed in the Parker School, 98. 

Young Men's Christian Association classes for high-school 
boys, 334. 



